1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,760 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,319 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy Egilson and I'm Holly Fry. Way back in 4 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:20,759 Speaker 1: I was having a conversation with a friend and the 5 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:25,479 Speaker 1: constructed language Esperanto came up in that conversation, and I 6 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,240 Speaker 1: had that little thought, Hey, maybe we should do a 7 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:31,920 Speaker 1: podcast on that sometime. And now more than a year later, 8 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:35,559 Speaker 1: we have come to that sometime. I know it was 9 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: from because we were in a restaurant in Philadelphia, which 10 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: means it was not during the pandemic. Uh was the 11 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,760 Speaker 1: last time I was there. Anyway, I really did not 12 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:52,559 Speaker 1: know all that much about Esperanto when I got into this, 13 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: aside from the fact that it's a language that was 14 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:59,800 Speaker 1: intentionally created to be easy to learn. Somehow I associated 15 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:02,320 Speaker 1: it with the nineteen sixties, and although that was one 16 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:05,280 Speaker 1: of its peaks and popularity that it's also a way 17 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:08,679 Speaker 1: older language than that. The other big thing that I 18 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:11,959 Speaker 1: associated with Esperanto was the scene in Twin Peaks where 19 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:14,759 Speaker 1: Gordon Cole goes to talk to Shelley at the Double 20 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:17,320 Speaker 1: R Diner and says he's going to engage in some 21 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:21,000 Speaker 1: counter Esperanto, and that was just my whole my whole 22 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,679 Speaker 1: knowledge of esperanto, and that right there, mine was largely 23 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:29,840 Speaker 1: from animaniacs. Oh yeah, yeah, because that's how it's it's 24 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:34,639 Speaker 1: usually referenced as like a casual side mentioned in pop culture. Yeah. Yeah, 25 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:36,679 Speaker 1: So we're having I mean, we're we're talking about this 26 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:39,720 Speaker 1: in a fun context in this moment. But parts of 27 00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:44,160 Speaker 1: this episode are really really tragic because we're talking about 28 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:46,840 Speaker 1: a language that was developed by a Jewish man living 29 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: in the Russian Empire in the late nineteenth and early 30 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: twentieth centuries, and then the speakers of that language were 31 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: persecuted and even killed under fascist and totalitarian regimes into 32 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:00,520 Speaker 1: and after World War Two. But at the same time, 33 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 1: this is also a profoundly hopeful and idealistic story because 34 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: it's one that's about trying to bring the whole world 35 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:11,040 Speaker 1: together through a shared second language. Most of the languages 36 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: that people on Earth used today are categorized as natural languages, 37 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:18,640 Speaker 1: meaning that they evolved over time as people used them, 38 00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:22,920 Speaker 1: often bringing in influences from other similarly evolving languages as 39 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:27,160 Speaker 1: they went. People generally learned to communicate through those languages 40 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:30,919 Speaker 1: before formalizing all of the rules associated with them. We 41 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: have talked on the show before about how grammar came 42 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: to be a thing and people started applying rules, and 43 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:38,800 Speaker 1: how if you look at older texts, you'll see things 44 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:44,800 Speaker 1: like completely um style, choice based spellings and ramatic grammatical 45 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:50,600 Speaker 1: usage and um the use of various punctuation. So a 46 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 1: language does not need, by the way to be spoken 47 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: to be considered a natural language. For example, most sign 48 00:02:56,240 --> 00:03:01,040 Speaker 1: languages are classified as natural languages. Construct did languages or 49 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: calm langs can also evolve over time, and many of 50 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:08,359 Speaker 1: them do, but they start with someone intentionally planning out 51 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:13,160 Speaker 1: the language is rules, including things like grammar, syntax, vocabulary, 52 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:17,880 Speaker 1: and pronunciation. Sometimes this creation is to develop a language 53 00:03:17,919 --> 00:03:22,120 Speaker 1: for a fictional world, like Klingon or Thracky or Tolkien's 54 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:27,079 Speaker 1: Elvish languages, but constructed languages can also serve more practical purposes. 55 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:31,880 Speaker 1: For example, constructed international auxiliary languages try to give speakers 56 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 1: of multiple natural languages a common language to communicate with. 57 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 1: Esperanto is one of these auxiliary languages. Also, there are 58 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:44,960 Speaker 1: whole linguistics discussions about the interplay between natural and constructed 59 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,360 Speaker 1: languages and whether these labels are even accurate, So this 60 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 1: is just the broadest of overviews. Philosophers around the world 61 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: have proposed ideas about constructed languages for millennia. One of 62 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:00,440 Speaker 1: the earliest surviving examples of a constructed language was created 63 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 1: by previous podcast subject Hildegard von Bingen, who started constructing 64 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:08,280 Speaker 1: a language that she called Lingua ignota or hidden language 65 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: in the twelfth century, although her efforts and the surviving 66 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: records of that language are both incomplete. Yeah, after we 67 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 1: did that episode on her, we got several notes saying, 68 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:20,720 Speaker 1: the folks for surprised we had not mentioned that, so 69 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:27,000 Speaker 1: now we have. There have been naturally arising Lingua francas 70 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: and creoles and pigeons and other shared ways of communicating. 71 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:34,520 Speaker 1: That's also been going on for millennia. But by the 72 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:39,920 Speaker 1: nineteenth century, people were also trying to intentionally create languages 73 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:42,279 Speaker 1: that would make it easier for people who didn't share 74 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:45,640 Speaker 1: a common language to communicate with each other. Before the 75 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:50,280 Speaker 1: development of Esperanto, the most popular such language was Volapuk, 76 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 1: which was developed in the early eighteen eighties by German 77 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:59,600 Speaker 1: priest Johann Martin Schleier. Volapuk drew from English and from Romance, languages, 78 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:03,159 Speaker 1: but with enough changes that those origins weren't all that 79 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:07,080 Speaker 1: recognizable to the people trying to learn it. Volapook also 80 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:11,000 Speaker 1: had a complicated set of grammar rules, so overall it 81 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 1: was not considered to be easy to learn. But there 82 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: were hundreds of Volapook clubs and more than three hundred 83 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:20,840 Speaker 1: textbooks written in twenty five different languages during the peak 84 00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: of its popularity. That peak was in the late eighteen eighties, 85 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:27,640 Speaker 1: and one of the big reasons for its decline after 86 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:31,360 Speaker 1: that point was the introduction of Esperanto in eighteen eight seven. 87 00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:37,520 Speaker 1: Esperanto's creator was a Jewish ophthalmologist known as Laser Ludwik Zamenhoff, 88 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:41,680 Speaker 1: who went by the initials l L professionally. Zamenhoff was 89 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:46,160 Speaker 1: born in Biala Stock on December eighteen fifty nine. His 90 00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:49,120 Speaker 1: name from birth was E. Liaser, The name he went 91 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:51,920 Speaker 1: by morphed a few times over the years before becoming 92 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:54,719 Speaker 1: those initials that he used as an adult, and you'll 93 00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:59,400 Speaker 1: also see those names transliterated with a number of different spellings. Also, 94 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:02,279 Speaker 1: that day of his birth is in the Gregorian calendar. 95 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:05,200 Speaker 1: At the time, the Russian Empire was still using the 96 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,360 Speaker 1: Julian calendar, and that put his date of birth as 97 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:12,800 Speaker 1: December third, eighteen fifty nine. Today yali Stock is in Poland, 98 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:14,839 Speaker 1: but at the time it was part of the Russian 99 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:18,520 Speaker 1: Pale of Settlement, which was the region of Czarist Russia 100 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:22,680 Speaker 1: in which Jewish people were allowed to live. Consequently, its 101 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,880 Speaker 1: population was about seventy percent Jewish. The other thirty percent 102 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:32,839 Speaker 1: primarily included Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians who were ethnically Polish, Russian, German, 103 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:37,080 Speaker 1: and Belarusian. People from these different groups didn't necessarily share 104 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:41,080 Speaker 1: a common language, and in his childhood Zamenhoff saw a 105 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:44,080 Speaker 1: lot of tension and strife among these disparate groups of 106 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: people that were all living in Balastock. Some of this 107 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:50,920 Speaker 1: came from religious divisions, but Zamenhoff thought that a major 108 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:54,440 Speaker 1: factor was that lack of a common language, people just 109 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:58,800 Speaker 1: couldn't understand each other. Zamon Hoff's father, Marcus, was a 110 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:02,279 Speaker 1: language teacher, and in eighteen seventy three, when Laser was 111 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,240 Speaker 1: about thirteen, the family moved to Warsaw so that he 112 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:08,080 Speaker 1: could take a job teaching at the Warsaw Gymnasium. He 113 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:12,160 Speaker 1: was actually one of only three Jewish instructors there. Marcus's 114 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,800 Speaker 1: position also meant that Laser could attend the school tuish 115 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:18,960 Speaker 1: and free. By this point, Laser was following in his 116 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:23,600 Speaker 1: father's footsteps in terms of studying languages. The Zamenhoff family 117 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:26,600 Speaker 1: spoke Yiddish and Russian at home and in their day 118 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:29,560 Speaker 1: to day lives, and they knew Hebrew as a religious 119 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:35,640 Speaker 1: and scholarly language. In addition, Laser learned Polish, German, Italian, French, 120 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:39,840 Speaker 1: and English. He had also started to learn Aramaic, Latin, 121 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 1: and Greek. He had taught himself those last two because 122 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:46,840 Speaker 1: they were required for admission at the Warsaw Gymnasium, but 123 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:49,640 Speaker 1: they had not been taught at his school. In Balis talk, 124 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:53,440 Speaker 1: Marcus Zamenhoff seems to have wanted the family to assimilate 125 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:56,560 Speaker 1: with Russian society as much as possible, and in eighteen 126 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:59,120 Speaker 1: ninety eight he started working as a censor for the 127 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:04,080 Speaker 1: Czarist Regie. He was censoring Yiddish and Hebrew publications. That 128 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:07,880 Speaker 1: same year, Laser started working on a way to bridge 129 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: the divisions that he saw in the world around him. 130 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:13,520 Speaker 1: He had this idea for a universal language that would 131 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:15,800 Speaker 1: be easy enough to learn that people could pick it 132 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:19,560 Speaker 1: up as a second language without too much trouble. He 133 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:21,880 Speaker 1: and some of his friends from school started working on 134 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:25,200 Speaker 1: this project in December of eighteen seventy eight. Even though 135 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:28,760 Speaker 1: he was a language instructor, Laser's father did not seem 136 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:31,880 Speaker 1: to have approved of this work. In some accounts, someone 137 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:35,760 Speaker 1: told Marcus that Laser's focus on a universal language was 138 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 1: a sign of mental illness. In others, the fear was 139 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 1: that this project would distract Laser from his studies. But 140 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:46,520 Speaker 1: either way, Laser decided to study medicine rather than languages 141 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: at the University of Moscow, and when he left for 142 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:53,280 Speaker 1: university in eighteen seventy nine, his father made him leave 143 00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:58,160 Speaker 1: his notebooks with his language notes behind and later burned them. 144 00:08:58,240 --> 00:08:59,959 Speaker 1: We need to set up a little bit of contact 145 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:02,080 Speaker 1: before we move on to the next part of the 146 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:04,839 Speaker 1: story of Esperanto, and we will do that after a 147 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:16,839 Speaker 1: quick sponsor break. L. L. Zamenhoff was born during the 148 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:21,040 Speaker 1: reign of Czar Alexander the Second, and as Emperor of Russia, 149 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:25,479 Speaker 1: Alexander had instituted a series of reforms. This included emancipating 150 00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:29,520 Speaker 1: Russia's surfs. Some of these reforms had also affected the 151 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:34,280 Speaker 1: Russian Empire's Jewish population. As we noted earlier, Jews could 152 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:37,640 Speaker 1: live only in the pale of settlement, but Alexander had 153 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:41,439 Speaker 1: loosened those restrictions at least some what. He had also 154 00:09:41,559 --> 00:09:46,400 Speaker 1: repealed an assimilation program that forced Jewish men into compulsory 155 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:51,360 Speaker 1: military service. None of this erased anti Semitism by any 156 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:54,240 Speaker 1: stretch of the imagination, but at least in some ways 157 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:56,679 Speaker 1: there had been a little bit of progress. But then, 158 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:01,400 Speaker 1: in one Alexander was assassinated, and rumors spread that his 159 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:05,600 Speaker 1: assassination had been part of a Jewish plot. This led 160 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:11,760 Speaker 1: to widespread programs and other violence against Jewish communities. Alexander's successor, 161 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:15,680 Speaker 1: Alexander the Third, was deeply anti Semitic and blamed his 162 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:21,079 Speaker 1: predecessor's relative liberality toward the Empire's Jewish population for both 163 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:25,960 Speaker 1: the assassination and the violence that followed. Zamenhof returned to 164 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:30,000 Speaker 1: Warsaw from Moscow during this wave of anti Semitic violence. 165 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:32,840 Speaker 1: He might have been motivated out of concern for his 166 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:36,120 Speaker 1: family's safety and his father's finances in the wake of 167 00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:39,600 Speaker 1: the programs. He didn't go back to Moscow after this point. 168 00:10:39,679 --> 00:10:42,520 Speaker 1: He enrolled in the University of Warsaw, and he finished 169 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:45,960 Speaker 1: his medical degree there in eighteen eighty four. The violence 170 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:50,079 Speaker 1: the Zamenhov witnessed in the early eighteen eighties, including in Warsaw, 171 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:54,200 Speaker 1: led him to advocate for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, 172 00:10:54,920 --> 00:10:58,040 Speaker 1: But unlike most other Zionists, he didn't think this homeland 173 00:10:58,200 --> 00:11:02,480 Speaker 1: necessarily needed to be in the levant. He knew Jews, Christians, 174 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:05,840 Speaker 1: and Muslims all saw sites within that region as sacred, 175 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:08,840 Speaker 1: and as a result, he thought that trying to establish 176 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:12,640 Speaker 1: a Jewish nation there could lead to further strife. Instead, 177 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:15,079 Speaker 1: when he first started writing about this, he wrote about 178 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:19,720 Speaker 1: the possibility of buying a tract of unoccupied land along 179 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:22,640 Speaker 1: the Mississippi River and the United States and settling there. 180 00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:25,640 Speaker 1: So this is a little bit of a tangle. Land 181 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:29,720 Speaker 1: along the Mississippi would not really have been unoccupied when 182 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:32,640 Speaker 1: that was the idea. It was getting unoccupied land. But 183 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:36,040 Speaker 1: this idea also was not very well received within the 184 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:40,960 Speaker 1: Jewish community. Zamon Hoff ultimately renounced Zionism, but before he did, 185 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:44,400 Speaker 1: his later publications on the subject focused more on the 186 00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:47,920 Speaker 1: idea of a Jewish nation in the general region where 187 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:51,760 Speaker 1: Israel is today. During these same years, zamon Hoff also 188 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:55,640 Speaker 1: promoted the idea that this proposed Jewish state needed to 189 00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:59,559 Speaker 1: have a modern language to bring together and unify its population. 190 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:03,480 Speaker 1: In his mind, the Yiddish already being spoken by many 191 00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:07,000 Speaker 1: Ashkenazi Jews where he lived did not exactly fit that bill. 192 00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:09,920 Speaker 1: He thought of Yiddish as a jargon rather than a 193 00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:13,439 Speaker 1: fully developed language, And on top of that, people spoke 194 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:16,679 Speaker 1: different forms of Yiddish depending on where they lived, and 195 00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:20,360 Speaker 1: Sephardic Jews were more likely to speak Judeo Spanish also 196 00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:23,720 Speaker 1: known as Ladino rather than Yiddish. So as he was 197 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:27,200 Speaker 1: studying medicine, Zamenhoff was also trying to work out a 198 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:30,280 Speaker 1: way to modernize Yiddish into what he saw as a 199 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:34,160 Speaker 1: more robust and functional language. As a side note, at 200 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:38,960 Speaker 1: almost exactly the same time, another man, Eliezer ben Yehuda, 201 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,280 Speaker 1: was also working on uniting the Jewish people through a 202 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:45,960 Speaker 1: common language. In this case, this language was Hebrew, which 203 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:49,680 Speaker 1: was mostly being used for religious texts and observances rather 204 00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:53,400 Speaker 1: than for daily conversation at that point. In eighteen eighty one, 205 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:56,760 Speaker 1: benya Huda announced that he would speak only Hebrew among 206 00:12:56,800 --> 00:12:59,280 Speaker 1: his friends and family, and in eighteen eighty four, he 207 00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:03,840 Speaker 1: established a Hebrew language newspaper. His efforts went on from there. 208 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:08,200 Speaker 1: Zamon Hoff later said that he had supported Benya Juda's 209 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:12,240 Speaker 1: early efforts with the revival of Hebrew, although the specifics 210 00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:16,440 Speaker 1: of that aren't really documented anywhere. After finishing his medical degree, 211 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,720 Speaker 1: zamon Hoff spent some time working as a doctor. Before 212 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:24,360 Speaker 1: long he decided to specialize and then started an internship 213 00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:28,320 Speaker 1: in ophthalmology at Warsaw Jewish Hospital. He also spent some 214 00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:31,880 Speaker 1: time studying in Vienna. After a couple of years in 215 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:34,040 Speaker 1: which he moved from place to place, he went back 216 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:37,120 Speaker 1: to Warsaw and opened an ophthalmology office in his home, 217 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,920 Speaker 1: and he moved away from the idea of modernizing Yiddish 218 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,679 Speaker 1: and back onto his project of developing a universal language 219 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:48,520 Speaker 1: that could unite all of humanity. While living in Warsaw, 220 00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:51,600 Speaker 1: zamon Hoff met Clara Zilbernick and they fell in love. 221 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:55,560 Speaker 1: She encouraged his efforts to develop a universal language, and 222 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:57,840 Speaker 1: the two of them used it to write each other 223 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:01,400 Speaker 1: love letters. Clara's father was well off, and when she 224 00:14:01,559 --> 00:14:05,080 Speaker 1: and Laser got married, her dowry was ten thousand roubles. 225 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 1: The intent was that this money would help Zamenhoff establish 226 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:13,400 Speaker 1: his ophthalmology practice, but with his father in law's permission. Instead, 227 00:14:13,440 --> 00:14:15,760 Speaker 1: he used some of it to publish a forty page 228 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:19,480 Speaker 1: booklet on his universal language in eighteen eighty seven. This 229 00:14:19,600 --> 00:14:24,120 Speaker 1: first booklet was published in Russian, and additions in Polish, French, 230 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:28,440 Speaker 1: and German followed soon after. English and Swedish editions came 231 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:32,800 Speaker 1: out in eighteen eighty nine. In English, it's title read Dr. 232 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:39,320 Speaker 1: Esperanto's International Language Introduction and Complete Grammar. Esperanto came from 233 00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:44,160 Speaker 1: the language itself, meaning hopeful one. Eventually the language became 234 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:48,120 Speaker 1: known as Esperanto, and in Esperanto this publication became known 235 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:52,680 Speaker 1: as Unua Libro or first Book. Here is how Zamenhoff 236 00:14:52,680 --> 00:14:56,720 Speaker 1: described the world he imagined being possible in this first book. 237 00:14:56,760 --> 00:15:01,160 Speaker 1: If everyone spoke the shared language of Esperanto quote, the 238 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:05,560 Speaker 1: impassable wall that separates literatures and people's would at once 239 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:08,960 Speaker 1: crumble into dust, and all that was written by another 240 00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:12,000 Speaker 1: nation would be as acceptable as if in our own 241 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:15,640 Speaker 1: mother tongue. Reading would prove common to all, and it 242 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:21,880 Speaker 1: would advance education, ideals, convictions, tendencies. The whole world would 243 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 1: be as one family. To that end, Zamenhoff drew from 244 00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:28,960 Speaker 1: languages that would already be familiar to people in much 245 00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:32,240 Speaker 1: of the Western world. It used the Roman alphabet, with 246 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:35,560 Speaker 1: the words themselves mainly coming from Latin and Germanic and 247 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:39,800 Speaker 1: Slavic languages. This actually also comes up as a criticism 248 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:42,480 Speaker 1: of Esperanto that it's not nearly as easy if you 249 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:47,240 Speaker 1: don't already speak a Romance, Germanic or Slavic language. If 250 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:54,120 Speaker 1: you do, you can piece together meanings of things relatively easily, 251 00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:57,160 Speaker 1: but if you don't it's a lot harder. So beyond 252 00:15:57,200 --> 00:16:00,480 Speaker 1: these recognizable roots, salmon Hoff also try to make the 253 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:04,000 Speaker 1: language itself really simple and easy to learn. It had 254 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:08,360 Speaker 1: only sixteen basic rules with no exceptions. Every letter had 255 00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 1: only one pronunciation, and every sound was represented by only 256 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:15,880 Speaker 1: one letter. So in Esperanto there's none of this. Is 257 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:19,160 Speaker 1: that a long A or a short a, nothing like 258 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:21,880 Speaker 1: r u f F and r o u g h 259 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:27,760 Speaker 1: being pronounced the same way like, there's non issues. This 260 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 1: language had no silent letters or irregular verb endings, and 261 00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:34,520 Speaker 1: the stress always went on the next to last syllable 262 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:39,640 Speaker 1: of the word. Esperanto also had only one definite article law, 263 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:44,320 Speaker 1: which was used regardless of gender, number, or case. Words 264 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:47,840 Speaker 1: in Esperanto also signaled which part of speech they were. 265 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:51,560 Speaker 1: Singular nouns and died an oh plural nouns, and o 266 00:16:51,800 --> 00:16:55,240 Speaker 1: j adjectives and did an a and adverbs and e 267 00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:59,720 Speaker 1: verbs in their basic form ended an i with past 268 00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:03,080 Speaker 1: ten s ending in i s, present tense in a s, 269 00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:07,760 Speaker 1: and future tense in os. Rather than creating a vocabulary 270 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:11,040 Speaker 1: of tens or hundreds of thousands of words in this 271 00:17:11,119 --> 00:17:14,960 Speaker 1: first publication, Zamenhoff created nine hundred root words that could 272 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:19,560 Speaker 1: be modified with prefixes and suffixes to create a vocabulary 273 00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:23,200 Speaker 1: between ten thousand and twelve thousand words. So, for example, 274 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:27,960 Speaker 1: the prefix mall m l means opposite, and the root 275 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:34,520 Speaker 1: bona means good, so malbona means bad, or dura means hard, 276 00:17:34,720 --> 00:17:38,680 Speaker 1: so maldura means soft. The idea was that people would 277 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:41,080 Speaker 1: only need to learn a smaller number of roots and 278 00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:44,720 Speaker 1: then modify them through these prefixes and suffixes to create 279 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:48,479 Speaker 1: a much wider, more complete vocabulary. We've used the past 280 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:52,199 Speaker 1: tense here because we're talking about Zamenhoff's first edition of 281 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:56,240 Speaker 1: the book, but Esperanto still exists. People still speak it today. 282 00:17:56,520 --> 00:17:59,520 Speaker 1: The number of word roots has grown from about nine 283 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:02,120 Speaker 1: it in that first book to as many as nine 284 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:05,280 Speaker 1: thousand or even more. We will talk more about how 285 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:17,119 Speaker 1: Esperanto grew and spread after another sponsor break. L. L. 286 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:21,200 Speaker 1: Zamenhoff's cope was that this universal language would give people 287 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:25,119 Speaker 1: from around the world a second language in common. It 288 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:28,760 Speaker 1: wouldn't be the official language of any nation, so there 289 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:32,080 Speaker 1: would be no country that could claim ownership of Esperanto, 290 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:35,560 Speaker 1: and no native speakers to look down on people who 291 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:39,040 Speaker 1: weren't as fluent. There are a few people who do 292 00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:42,359 Speaker 1: speak Esperanto as their first language, kind of scattered around 293 00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:45,680 Speaker 1: the world today, though salmon Hoff also saw this as 294 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:50,400 Speaker 1: facilitating all kinds of exchange among different cultures. Rather than 295 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:53,600 Speaker 1: needing to learn multiple languages to speak to people from 296 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:57,480 Speaker 1: different countries, you'd only need to learn Esperanto. And rather 297 00:18:57,520 --> 00:19:01,000 Speaker 1: than translating works of literature into new orus languages, they 298 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:05,119 Speaker 1: could all be translated into one language, Esperanto. The first 299 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:08,560 Speaker 1: book contained this pledge at the end, quote I the 300 00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:12,960 Speaker 1: subscriber promised to learn the international language invented by Dr 301 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:16,440 Speaker 1: Esperanto if it be shown that ten millions of persons 302 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:21,400 Speaker 1: have given publicly the same promise. Reportedly, only about one 303 00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:24,960 Speaker 1: thousand people returned these pledge forms to Zamenhoff, but soon 304 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:28,879 Speaker 1: Esperanto clubs were being established in Western Russia and in 305 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:33,200 Speaker 1: other parts of Europe. Esperanto quickly became more popular than 306 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:37,000 Speaker 1: the constructed language of Volapook that we mentioned earlier. And 307 00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:40,120 Speaker 1: we also mentioned that Volapook had a reputation for being 308 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:44,159 Speaker 1: hard to learn, and there's a cute nod to it, 309 00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:48,520 Speaker 1: and that the Esperanto word for Gibberish is volapukago. While 310 00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:52,359 Speaker 1: Esperanto clubs are being established around Europe, zamon Hoff was 311 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:56,320 Speaker 1: really struggling financially. He was trying to promote his universal 312 00:19:56,400 --> 00:20:00,680 Speaker 1: language while also trying to maintain his optimology practice. Eventually, 313 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:03,080 Speaker 1: money got so tight that he sent his wife and 314 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:05,720 Speaker 1: their first child, Adam, to live with her father for 315 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:07,560 Speaker 1: a while so he could look for a place where 316 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:11,120 Speaker 1: they could afford to live. They had a daughter, Zophia, 317 00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty nine, and at that point Clara's father 318 00:20:14,119 --> 00:20:16,199 Speaker 1: gave them some money under the condition that they come 319 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:19,960 Speaker 1: back to Warsaw. They did, although they eventually moved to 320 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:22,600 Speaker 1: the smaller town of grown Note, which had a lower 321 00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,960 Speaker 1: cost of living. In eighteen ninety four, Zaman Hooff tried 322 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:30,400 Speaker 1: to reform his original rules for Esperanto. It's alphabet used 323 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:33,359 Speaker 1: diacritical marks on some of the letters, and most of 324 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:36,639 Speaker 1: the combinations of letters and accent marks didn't exist in 325 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:40,320 Speaker 1: any other languages. So this caused the problem of printers 326 00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:43,480 Speaker 1: not having them in their type. They were harder for 327 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:45,960 Speaker 1: people with low vision to read, and they didn't exist 328 00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:48,639 Speaker 1: in Brail at all. It would be a few more 329 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:52,320 Speaker 1: years before say a Field Kart and de Lander would 330 00:20:52,359 --> 00:20:57,360 Speaker 1: develop a Brail alphabet for Esperanto. The Esperanto community resisted 331 00:20:57,400 --> 00:20:59,680 Speaker 1: these revisions, though, thinking that it would kind of be 332 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:03,280 Speaker 1: like starting over. The diacritical marks are still part of 333 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:07,000 Speaker 1: the alphabet, and especially in old printed texts, there have 334 00:21:07,119 --> 00:21:10,360 Speaker 1: been a variety of workarounds for them. Yeah, I would 335 00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:12,480 Speaker 1: say some of these workarounds are more successful than others. 336 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,680 Speaker 1: Like I was reading trying to read one old, old 337 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:21,920 Speaker 1: printed thing, and it just looked like these letters were identical, 338 00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:24,360 Speaker 1: when really some of them were supposed to have accents 339 00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:27,080 Speaker 1: over them and some of them were not. Samon Hoff 340 00:21:27,119 --> 00:21:32,400 Speaker 1: started an Esperanto magazine called Esperantisto, and he started translating 341 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:37,399 Speaker 1: literature in other languages into Esperanto. One such translation was 342 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,919 Speaker 1: an excerpt of Leo Tolstoy's Reason or Faith, But then, 343 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:45,440 Speaker 1: because of Tolstoy's writing on civil disobedience, this translation led 344 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:51,040 Speaker 1: to La Esperantisto being banned in Russia and it ultimately folded. However, 345 00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:55,200 Speaker 1: translating works of literature, including Hamlet, really helped Samon Haff 346 00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:59,320 Speaker 1: flesh out the Esperanto vocabulary as he coined new root 347 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:03,240 Speaker 1: words to fit the needs of the text. In eight seven, 348 00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:06,920 Speaker 1: zamon Hoff and his family moved back to Warsaw. He 349 00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:10,280 Speaker 1: re established an optimology practice once again in his home, 350 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:12,640 Speaker 1: and he maintained it for the rest of his life. 351 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:16,359 Speaker 1: Many of his patients who were among Warsaw's poorest people 352 00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:20,080 Speaker 1: who lived in the city's Jewish ghetto. Even though zamen 353 00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:23,680 Speaker 1: Hoff had moved away from the idea of Zionism and 354 00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:27,240 Speaker 1: from the idea of creating a common language specifically for 355 00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:30,840 Speaker 1: the Jewish people, he hadn't at all lost sight of 356 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:35,560 Speaker 1: the ongoing anti Semitism and marginalization that Jewish people were facing. 357 00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:39,440 Speaker 1: He really recognized that Jews were not seen as Russian, 358 00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:43,119 Speaker 1: and he thought that no matter how many generations passed 359 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:45,959 Speaker 1: that was always going to be the case. In nineteen 360 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,520 Speaker 1: o one, he published Hillelism, a project in response to 361 00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:52,800 Speaker 1: the Jewish question, and that was named for Rabbi Hillel 362 00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:55,359 Speaker 1: the Elder, who was born around a hundred and ten BC. 363 00:22:56,600 --> 00:23:00,080 Speaker 1: Many of Hillel's teachings were rooted in empathy, with one 364 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:03,320 Speaker 1: of his most widely quoted being do not do to 365 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:07,880 Speaker 1: your neighbor that which is hateful to you. Initially, Helllism 366 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:12,000 Speaker 1: reframed Jewish identity to focus on universal ethics rather than 367 00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:15,480 Speaker 1: Jewish law, with rituals having a cultural rather than a 368 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:20,560 Speaker 1: religious meaning. Basically, it tried to create a religiously neutral 369 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:25,600 Speaker 1: bridge between Jewish identity and Russian life. Zamenhoff also saw 370 00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:30,320 Speaker 1: Helllism and Esperanto as connected, with Esperanto being part of 371 00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:34,680 Speaker 1: that religiously neutral bridge. Also in nineteen o one, North 372 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:38,480 Speaker 1: America's first Esperanto club was established. That happened in Montreal. 373 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:42,160 Speaker 1: In nineteen o four, the language was exhibited at the St. 374 00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:46,720 Speaker 1: Louis Exposition, and Laser and Clara welcomed another daughter named Lydia. 375 00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:50,520 Speaker 1: A group of English and French esperantists that's people who 376 00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:54,480 Speaker 1: are fluent in Esperanto also gathered to plan their first 377 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:58,240 Speaker 1: international meeting that year as well. That meeting took place 378 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:02,600 Speaker 1: in Boulogne Surmier, France in nineteen o five. Delegates at 379 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,480 Speaker 1: the five meeting ratified a document that came to be 380 00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:09,720 Speaker 1: known as the Declaration of Boulogne, which specified that Esperanto 381 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,399 Speaker 1: was neutral and that it belonged to no one, and 382 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:15,440 Speaker 1: that the only authority of the language was the book 383 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:20,080 Speaker 1: Fundamento to Esperanto, which Zamenhoff published in nineteen o five. 384 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:25,119 Speaker 1: Esperanto had really taken off among French intellectuals, and this 385 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:29,880 Speaker 1: French popularity had actually created some issues. France was still 386 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:33,439 Speaker 1: reeling from the political scandal known as the Dreyfus Affair 387 00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:37,960 Speaker 1: after Jewish Army Captain Alfred Dreyfuss was falsely convicted of 388 00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:42,240 Speaker 1: treason in eighteen ninety four. This conviction had caused a 389 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,520 Speaker 1: massive schism in France, with the anti Dreyfusard faction spreading 390 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:50,760 Speaker 1: all kinds of deeply anti Semitic propaganda. This is actually 391 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:52,920 Speaker 1: on the list for a future episode at some point. 392 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:56,800 Speaker 1: Because of all the fur many of the French intellectuals 393 00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:01,320 Speaker 1: who had become fascinated with Esperanto ide to distance themselves 394 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,400 Speaker 1: from zaman Hooff, his Jewishness and the ideas of Hellelism 395 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:09,600 Speaker 1: that he was promoting. Even so, zamon Hoff was inducted 396 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:12,160 Speaker 1: into the French Legion of Honor in nineteen o five. 397 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 1: Violent programs also continued in the Russian Empire during these 398 00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:21,560 Speaker 1: same years, killing at least two thousand Jewish people between 399 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:24,280 Speaker 1: nineteen o three and the start of the Russian Revolution 400 00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:28,480 Speaker 1: of nineteen o five. In nineteen o six, Zamenhoff spoke 401 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:32,520 Speaker 1: about these programs in Geneva, calling for Esperanto to become 402 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:35,720 Speaker 1: a shared language to try to break down religious barriers. 403 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:39,320 Speaker 1: By this point, he had also revised his ideas of 404 00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:43,359 Speaker 1: Hellelism into something that he called homer and Esmo that 405 00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:48,120 Speaker 1: roughly translates to humanitism. And although this contained a lot 406 00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:51,960 Speaker 1: of the same concepts that Hellelism had, zamon Hooff saw 407 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:58,080 Speaker 1: Homeranismo as a neutral ethical framework to unite all of humanity. 408 00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:01,800 Speaker 1: In a lot of ways, esper Onto and Homerinizmo went 409 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,440 Speaker 1: hand in hand. Esperanto was a shared language to unite 410 00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:09,720 Speaker 1: the world, and homeransm was in Zamenhof's words, a neutral 411 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:13,480 Speaker 1: human religion which would unite not just Jews and Gentiles, 412 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:17,879 Speaker 1: but also theists and atheists into one global community with 413 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,800 Speaker 1: a shared set of ethical principles. It really really had 414 00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:25,400 Speaker 1: a lot in common with that earlier idea of Hellenism, 415 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:29,359 Speaker 1: but with a slightly different focus. So although part of 416 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:33,280 Speaker 1: the Esperanto community shared this sense of global ethics and 417 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:37,600 Speaker 1: global unity, others, including a lot of the French intellectuals 418 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:39,960 Speaker 1: that we mentioned earlier, were really more focused on the 419 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:45,240 Speaker 1: language itself and its practical uses. In Zamenhof sent Louis 420 00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:48,239 Speaker 1: de beau frant to represent him and the language at 421 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:52,920 Speaker 1: the Delegation for the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language, 422 00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:58,000 Speaker 1: but rather than representing Esperanto, which he was expected to do, 423 00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,960 Speaker 1: de beau front, a non anamously proposed that the committee 424 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:06,080 Speaker 1: adopt a different language. It was Edo, which was Esperanto 425 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:10,560 Speaker 1: for offspring. The beau front described Edo as a revised 426 00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:14,280 Speaker 1: version of Esperanto, and it eventually came out that he 427 00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:16,600 Speaker 1: was the one who had submitted it to the committee. 428 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:21,960 Speaker 1: The sparked the first of several schisms within the Esperanto community, 429 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:26,480 Speaker 1: as the edists broke away from the Esperantists. Salmon Hoff 430 00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:29,640 Speaker 1: was really shocked and disheartened by de beau Frant's actions 431 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:33,119 Speaker 1: and by the division that followed. But also in nineteen 432 00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:36,200 Speaker 1: o seven, zamon Hoff was nominated for the Nobel Peace 433 00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:40,879 Speaker 1: Prize for the first of fourteen times. Multiple different parties 434 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,680 Speaker 1: made the nominations over the years. The first nomination came 435 00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:49,080 Speaker 1: from twelve members of the British Parliament. Other nominations included 436 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:52,960 Speaker 1: forty two members of the French Parliament in nine Painter 437 00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:57,639 Speaker 1: and Esperanto promoter Felix Stone Moschell and Charles Robert Roche, 438 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,000 Speaker 1: who was himself awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or 439 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:06,560 Speaker 1: Medicine in nineteen thirteen. The Universal Esperanto Association or u 440 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,480 Speaker 1: e A was founded in nineteen o eight, and the 441 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:12,920 Speaker 1: language continued to spread around the world. It was introduced 442 00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:16,240 Speaker 1: into Japan after the Russo Japanese War, and it became 443 00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:18,720 Speaker 1: something of a fad there in nineteen o five and 444 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:24,240 Speaker 1: nineteen o six. Eventually, the Japanese religion Omoto adopted Esperanto 445 00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:29,239 Speaker 1: as its language. Dr Vilhel Molli proposed renaming Neutral Morris Net, 446 00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:32,119 Speaker 1: which was a small neutral patch of territory in Western 447 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:36,960 Speaker 1: Europe as a mikhaeo or place of friendship in Esperanto, 448 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:40,840 Speaker 1: and he commissioned in Esperanto National Anthem in nineteen o eight. 449 00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:44,920 Speaker 1: Germany eventually annexed Neutral morris Net and it became part 450 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,200 Speaker 1: of Belgium after World War One. Even though the idea 451 00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,880 Speaker 1: wasn't for Esperanto to be any nations like official language, 452 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,560 Speaker 1: the idea that this like tiny neutral patch of territory 453 00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:59,320 Speaker 1: might use Esperanto as an official language was kind of 454 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:03,560 Speaker 1: captivating to people. Zamon Hoff had been a heavy smoker 455 00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:05,640 Speaker 1: for a lot of his life, and by the nineteen 456 00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:08,680 Speaker 1: teens he was showing symptoms of heart disease as he 457 00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:11,560 Speaker 1: became increasingly ill. His son Adam took over part of 458 00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:14,720 Speaker 1: the medical practice, but beyond that, zamon Hoff just didn't 459 00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,360 Speaker 1: want to slow down. Calmarinismo and Esperanto were just so 460 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:22,480 Speaker 1: deeply important to him. He kept promoting and writing about 461 00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:25,360 Speaker 1: them and adding more and more works of literature onto 462 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:28,840 Speaker 1: his list to translate into Esperanto. Zamon Hoff traveled to 463 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,920 Speaker 1: Paris in nineteen fourteen for an Esperanto convention, and he 464 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:35,840 Speaker 1: got trapped there when nations started closing borders at the 465 00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:39,920 Speaker 1: start of World War One, a network of Esperantists helped 466 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,640 Speaker 1: him get back home via Scandinavia. That same year, a 467 00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:47,200 Speaker 1: bill was introduced into the US Congress to teach Esperanto 468 00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:50,240 Speaker 1: in the schools of Washington, d c. Although that got 469 00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:53,400 Speaker 1: stuck in committee. There were also people in the US 470 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:56,280 Speaker 1: who were advocating for the teaching of Esperanto to break 471 00:29:56,320 --> 00:30:00,760 Speaker 1: down racial barriers, including black journalist and essayist William Pickens. 472 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:05,320 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixteen, Zamenhoff's brother, Alexander took his own life 473 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: after being conscripted into the Russian Army. Alexander had been 474 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:12,720 Speaker 1: really deeply traumatized by what he had witnessed as a 475 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:17,360 Speaker 1: doctor earlier during the Russo Japanese War. L. L. Zamenhoff 476 00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:20,640 Speaker 1: died the following year, on April fourteenth of nineteen seventeen, 477 00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:23,760 Speaker 1: at the age of fifty seven. Clara kept up with 478 00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:27,320 Speaker 1: his work after his death, corresponding with esperantists and promoting 479 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:32,160 Speaker 1: the language. She died of cancer on December six Zamenhoff 480 00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:35,280 Speaker 1: had conceived of Esperanto as a neutral language, and the 481 00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:40,280 Speaker 1: Declaration of Boulogne had affirmed that neutrality, But after Zamenhoff's death, 482 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:42,480 Speaker 1: and after the end of World War One, a range 483 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:46,840 Speaker 1: of social and political organizations adopted and advocated for the language. 484 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:53,560 Speaker 1: These included socialists, labor organizations, vegetarian organizations, and members of 485 00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:56,600 Speaker 1: the High Faith. While there had always been people of 486 00:30:56,760 --> 00:31:00,480 Speaker 1: various religions and political alignments who had learned an advocated 487 00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:04,800 Speaker 1: for Esperanto, in the nineteen twenties it became increasingly associated 488 00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:09,880 Speaker 1: with leftist political and social movements. Meanwhile, the Universal Esperanto 489 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:14,120 Speaker 1: Association advocated for Esperanto with the League of Nations. A 490 00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:18,120 Speaker 1: proposal for Esperanto to be adopted as the league's official 491 00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:21,880 Speaker 1: language was blocked by France, which argued that French was 492 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:27,000 Speaker 1: already a universal language. Brazilian ambassador Raoul de Rio Bronco 493 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:31,080 Speaker 1: blocked a resolution that Esperanto be taught in schools, calling 494 00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:34,760 Speaker 1: it a language of quote ne'er do wells and communists. 495 00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:39,040 Speaker 1: I love the idea that France, the French was a 496 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:42,960 Speaker 1: neutral language. Well, like this is our universal language. We 497 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:47,320 Speaker 1: certainly speak it. Yeah, well, I didn't get into it 498 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:49,120 Speaker 1: in this outline. Will probably talk about it in the 499 00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:51,920 Speaker 1: behind the scenes, but like there's also been a lot 500 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,880 Speaker 1: of conversation about like, but now English is the universal 501 00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:59,160 Speaker 1: language and I'm like, come on, really right. When the 502 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:03,920 Speaker 1: Russian Revolution and began in nineteen seventeen, Russian esperantists generally 503 00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:08,520 Speaker 1: supported it, and eventually the Bolshevik government officially supported the language. 504 00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:12,360 Speaker 1: In turn, the Esperanto Union of the Soviet Republics. You'll 505 00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:15,480 Speaker 1: see that as s e U organized itself according to 506 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:19,240 Speaker 1: Bolshevik principles, which led to a schism between the s 507 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:21,800 Speaker 1: EU and the U e A. Yeah, the U e 508 00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:24,200 Speaker 1: A was like, this goes against the idea of being 509 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:30,520 Speaker 1: politically neutral. However, when Joseph Stalin came to power, Esperanto 510 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:33,040 Speaker 1: fell out of favor in the Soviet Union, and by 511 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:37,320 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six there were mass arrests of esperantists. The 512 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 1: SEUs leaders were executed, Esperantists were persecuted, and Imperial Japan 513 00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:47,400 Speaker 1: as well. In these years. In Germany, Heinrich Himmler shut 514 00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:52,120 Speaker 1: down the German Esperanto Association in nineteen thirty six. Overall, 515 00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:55,880 Speaker 1: the Nazi regime saw the language and its associated movement 516 00:32:56,040 --> 00:33:00,520 Speaker 1: as radical and dangerous. Reich Minister of Propaganda of Joseph 517 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:05,000 Speaker 1: Gebbels called Esperanto quote the language of Jews and communists. 518 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:09,000 Speaker 1: Adolf Hitler also condemned the idea of Esperanto or a 519 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:12,920 Speaker 1: similar universal language in his book Mind comp describing it 520 00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,320 Speaker 1: as a tool that Jews would use to take over 521 00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:20,680 Speaker 1: the world. The Nazi regime persecuted and killed Esperantists, including 522 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:25,000 Speaker 1: those with and without Jewish ancestry. World War Two continued 523 00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:28,520 Speaker 1: to strain the idea of Esperanto as being politically neutral. 524 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:32,640 Speaker 1: Many Esperantists were anti fascists, and the movement had always 525 00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:36,160 Speaker 1: been focused on these principles of peace and international understanding. 526 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:40,080 Speaker 1: Networks of Esperantists offered to aid people who were being 527 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:43,720 Speaker 1: persecuted under the Nazi regime, but at the same time, 528 00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:48,160 Speaker 1: national German Esperanto organizations were established during these years that 529 00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:52,360 Speaker 1: excluded Jewish members and otherwise tried to appease the Nazis, 530 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:56,080 Speaker 1: and in the nineteen thirties, Nazi Party member Anton Vote 531 00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:58,840 Speaker 1: was the vice president of the u e A. The 532 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:02,840 Speaker 1: Zaminha family were all victims of this violence. In persecution, 533 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,800 Speaker 1: the Zamenhoff home in Warsaw was bombed in nineteen thirty nine, 534 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:11,000 Speaker 1: and afterward Adam, Zophia and Lydia Zamenhoff, as well as 535 00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:15,880 Speaker 1: Adam's wife, Wanda, were all arrested. Wanda was eventually returned 536 00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,359 Speaker 1: to the Warsaw Ghetto, and she and their son went 537 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:22,840 Speaker 1: into hiding and ultimately survived the Holocaust. So as we 538 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:26,239 Speaker 1: noted earlier, Adam Zamenhoff was a doctor and he had 539 00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:30,000 Speaker 1: become the director of a hospital. Zophia was a pediatrician. 540 00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:34,120 Speaker 1: Lydia was a writer and a translator. She had converted 541 00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:36,360 Speaker 1: to the High Faith and had traveled all over the 542 00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:40,560 Speaker 1: world studying and teaching and lecturing. The American Assembly of 543 00:34:40,640 --> 00:34:43,360 Speaker 1: the High Faith had invited Lydia to the United States 544 00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:47,520 Speaker 1: to teach esperanto classes in nineteen thirty seven, but when 545 00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:51,000 Speaker 1: it turned out that teaching those classes violated the terms 546 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,360 Speaker 1: of her visa, her request for an extension was denied 547 00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:58,120 Speaker 1: and she was forced to return to Europe. In night, 548 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:02,720 Speaker 1: Nazi officers shot Adam Zamenhoff to death during the Palmiria massacre. 549 00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:07,359 Speaker 1: In January of nineteen Lydia and Zofia Zamenhoff were both 550 00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:11,640 Speaker 1: executed at the Treblinka death Camp. Zofia reportedly went to 551 00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:15,399 Speaker 1: Triblinka voluntarily, possibly because she did not want to leave 552 00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:19,640 Speaker 1: her patients. Although Esperanto had already spread so many other 553 00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:22,560 Speaker 1: parts of the world before World War Two, many of 554 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:26,000 Speaker 1: its speakers and its largest organizations had been in Europe, 555 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,399 Speaker 1: and in the face of these horrific tragedies, that really 556 00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:32,320 Speaker 1: took some time before the language started to revive again. 557 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:36,160 Speaker 1: After the war, the Esperanto community had also faced yet 558 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:40,880 Speaker 1: another schism after Swiss esperantists undermined a planned move of 559 00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:44,640 Speaker 1: the u e A headquarters from Geneva to London. A 560 00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:48,920 Speaker 1: new organization, the Internacia Esperanto Lego i e L, was 561 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:53,440 Speaker 1: established in London, and most of the national Esperanto organizations 562 00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:56,680 Speaker 1: left the u e A and joined it. The two 563 00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:01,440 Speaker 1: organizations were merged after the war. The World Esperanto Congress 564 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:04,240 Speaker 1: was convened in nineteen forty seven. That was the first 565 00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:07,000 Speaker 1: time that it had been held since nineteen thirty nine. 566 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:11,400 Speaker 1: People started advocating for Esperanto at the United Nations as 567 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:15,960 Speaker 1: a way to encourage and facilitate international communication. In nineteen 568 00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:20,799 Speaker 1: fifty four, the General Conference at UNESCO past the Montevideo Resolution, 569 00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:26,760 Speaker 1: which supported Esperanto as an international auxiliary language. Poland hosted 570 00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:30,320 Speaker 1: the World Esperanto Congress in nineteen fifty nine, which was 571 00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:32,279 Speaker 1: the first time that the Congress had been held in 572 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,359 Speaker 1: that part of Europe since the World War two years. 573 00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:38,440 Speaker 1: The first feature films in Esperanto were produced in the 574 00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:42,640 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. There was and Goroy in nineteen sixty four, 575 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,840 Speaker 1: and in Cuba, which is also called Incubus, which starred 576 00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:49,080 Speaker 1: William Shatner in nineteen sixty six. He apparently learned his 577 00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:54,680 Speaker 1: lines sphonetically. Esperanto's progress was complicated in some parts of 578 00:36:54,719 --> 00:36:58,440 Speaker 1: the world during these years. In China, for example, Esperantos 579 00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:02,040 Speaker 1: were imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution in the nineteen sixties 580 00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:06,360 Speaker 1: and seventies, while the Chinese government simultaneously used the language 581 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:11,160 Speaker 1: for propaganda purposes, even though Zamenhoff had created the language 582 00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:13,640 Speaker 1: with the idea that it would bring peace and unity. 583 00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:16,680 Speaker 1: In the nineteen sixties, the U. S. Army used it 584 00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:19,719 Speaker 1: for war games in which the enemy combatants had their 585 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:24,200 Speaker 1: own uniforms and spoke Esperanto. As part of this, the 586 00:37:24,360 --> 00:37:28,600 Speaker 1: army put out a publication called Esperanto the Aggressor Language. 587 00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,200 Speaker 1: The army eventually dropped this program because it turns out 588 00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:34,839 Speaker 1: that even though Esperanto is meant to be easy to learn, 589 00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:37,880 Speaker 1: it is still time consuming to learn a whole language 590 00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:41,920 Speaker 1: for war games. Esperanto's popularity started to wane a bit 591 00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:44,560 Speaker 1: in the latter part of the twentieth century, but since 592 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:48,120 Speaker 1: then the Internet has made it a lot more accessible 593 00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:50,960 Speaker 1: to more people. By the early twenty first century, it 594 00:37:51,040 --> 00:37:53,560 Speaker 1: was also becoming more popular in parts of the world 595 00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:57,400 Speaker 1: whose official languages aren't based in Latin, so places like 596 00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:01,080 Speaker 1: China and parts of Africa. The language app Duo lingo 597 00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:03,840 Speaker 1: Is showed the first version of its Esperanto course in 598 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,360 Speaker 1: I took a tiny number of those while working on 599 00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:11,400 Speaker 1: this episode, not enough to hold on any sort of conversation, 600 00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:15,239 Speaker 1: but I did do a few. It is clear that 601 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:18,560 Speaker 1: online classes and apps have led more people to learn 602 00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:22,520 Speaker 1: at least some Esperanto like Tracy, but exact numbers are 603 00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:25,960 Speaker 1: really pretty unclear. Estimates range all the way from one 604 00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:30,080 Speaker 1: hundred thousand speakers to a couple of million. The Universal 605 00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:34,160 Speaker 1: Esperanto Association has members in more than one d twenty countries. 606 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,280 Speaker 1: But it also seems like in some ways the online 607 00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:40,320 Speaker 1: spread of the language is both a blessing and a curse. 608 00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:44,279 Speaker 1: More people are learning the language, but not necessarily with 609 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:48,640 Speaker 1: the connection to Zamenhoff's ideals of unity and bridge building. 610 00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:53,600 Speaker 1: Like back when most people learned Esperanto almost exclusively through 611 00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:58,040 Speaker 1: clubs and pen and paper correspondence courses, there were directories 612 00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:01,800 Speaker 1: of people who would welcome other Esperantists into their homes. 613 00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:05,319 Speaker 1: Those directories still exist, but it's just it's not as 614 00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:08,640 Speaker 1: feasible to do something like that when a huge number 615 00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:12,120 Speaker 1: of people are learning a language through an app without 616 00:39:12,239 --> 00:39:17,440 Speaker 1: necessarily that shared cultural context. The Internet's enthusiasm for Esperanto 617 00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:21,719 Speaker 1: also means that resources in Esperanto can weigh out number 618 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:24,800 Speaker 1: resources for other languages that have a lot more speakers. 619 00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:28,919 Speaker 1: The Fifth World Esperanto Congress was supposed to be held 620 00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:32,480 Speaker 1: in in Montreal, but because of the pandemic, that was 621 00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:38,120 Speaker 1: postponed until instead a series of virtual events took place 622 00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:43,640 Speaker 1: from June to September. Also December fifteen. L. L. Zamenhoff's 623 00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:48,799 Speaker 1: birthday is now Zalmonhoff Day. I enjoyed working on this episode, uh, 624 00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,640 Speaker 1: even as the tragic parts are really hard to work on. Yeah, 625 00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:57,160 Speaker 1: um uh, do you have listener mail in Esperanto for us? 626 00:39:57,840 --> 00:40:01,640 Speaker 1: I do this. It's not been Esperanto, but it is 627 00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:05,400 Speaker 1: from Caroline. It's about our nineteen eighteen flu episode, and 628 00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:08,439 Speaker 1: Caroline says, hello, lovely ladies. I hope you're doing well 629 00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:11,520 Speaker 1: and enjoying some lovely spring weather. I'm writing this email 630 00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,160 Speaker 1: right after the release of the first part of Revisiting 631 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:17,319 Speaker 1: the Flu pandemic. While I understand that there's a lot 632 00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:20,400 Speaker 1: to cover there, especially in the overlap of the current pandemic, 633 00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:22,799 Speaker 1: I was disappointed, in a little shock that you did 634 00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:26,320 Speaker 1: not discuss how both pandemics affect those with chronic illness, 635 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:29,840 Speaker 1: especially in regards to mask mandates. Throughout the episode, I 636 00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:32,360 Speaker 1: noted three opportunities for you to do so, where you didn't. 637 00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:34,680 Speaker 1: I understand that you had a lot to cover, and 638 00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:36,640 Speaker 1: I do not believe this was done maliciously, so I 639 00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:38,680 Speaker 1: thought I'd take the time to do so. I could 640 00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:41,840 Speaker 1: spend all day discussing how the pandemic has negatively impacted 641 00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:45,000 Speaker 1: us with chronic illness, but I wanted to specifically address 642 00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:47,319 Speaker 1: mask mandates because this, in my view, is the most 643 00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:50,200 Speaker 1: problematic in the social realm. Although I could tell you 644 00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:52,160 Speaker 1: did try to be compassionate with this issue, there were 645 00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:54,879 Speaker 1: times where it felt like you slipped into stereotyping those 646 00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:57,400 Speaker 1: who don't wish to wear masks of selfish ne'er duels, 647 00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:00,680 Speaker 1: although there's no denial that this is some the population. 648 00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:04,440 Speaker 1: This again completely dismisses situations where people do have very 649 00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:08,080 Speaker 1: serious but personal reasons for not wearing a mask. UM. 650 00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:11,799 Speaker 1: The remainder of the email talks a lot about Caroline's 651 00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:15,120 Speaker 1: own personal medical history, so I'm not going to read 652 00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:18,920 Speaker 1: all of it, but thank you for sharing that with me, Caroline. UM. So, first, 653 00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:24,040 Speaker 1: I apologize if I made anyone who is chronically ill 654 00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:29,160 Speaker 1: or disabled UM feel excluded or talked over or dismissed 655 00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:33,640 Speaker 1: in working on that episode. There are some valid reasons 656 00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:35,920 Speaker 1: that people have for not wearing masks, and at the 657 00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:39,080 Speaker 1: same time, there are also a lot of non disabled 658 00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:41,800 Speaker 1: people who are using disability as a shield to do 659 00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:46,360 Speaker 1: crap like print out fake Americans with Disabilities Act notices 660 00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:51,160 Speaker 1: and like harass store employees and generally make things unsafe 661 00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:55,000 Speaker 1: for everyone, and it outrages me, and I didn't feel 662 00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:58,960 Speaker 1: like it was something that I could like bring into 663 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:04,480 Speaker 1: the episode without feeling like I was giving uh acceptability 664 00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:07,359 Speaker 1: or weight to the people who are doing that. UM. 665 00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:10,880 Speaker 1: Because overwhelmingly the disabled and chronically ill people in my 666 00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:15,760 Speaker 1: life feel more unsafe because of that type of behavior 667 00:42:16,360 --> 00:42:18,680 Speaker 1: of people who are like using disability as a shield 668 00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:21,160 Speaker 1: to not wear masks just because they don't want to 669 00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:27,080 Speaker 1: do it and want to be jerks to others. UM. Also, Uh, 670 00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:31,520 Speaker 1: there is just not a lot of data yet about 671 00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:36,440 Speaker 1: disability and chronic illness in the flu pandemic, beyond the 672 00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:39,600 Speaker 1: chronic respiratory diseases that came up several times in the episodes, 673 00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:45,000 Speaker 1: like tuberculosis. UM. And part of that is because the 674 00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:49,960 Speaker 1: nine eighteen flu was happening during the eugenics movement, during 675 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:55,160 Speaker 1: a time when overwhelmingly disabled and chronically ill people were 676 00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:59,439 Speaker 1: living in like special homes and special schools or being 677 00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:01,560 Speaker 1: cared for at home in a way that they weren't 678 00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:05,080 Speaker 1: in the public eye very much. UM also like a 679 00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:08,000 Speaker 1: shortcoming within the field of history that's just isn't something 680 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:11,440 Speaker 1: that historians have looked at a whole lot recently, and 681 00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:14,160 Speaker 1: the papers that have started to be coming out over 682 00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:16,759 Speaker 1: the last decade or so or kind of like, wow, 683 00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:20,680 Speaker 1: there's almost nothing about this. UM. The field of disability 684 00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,360 Speaker 1: studies itself is also really new, so it's like that 685 00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:26,440 Speaker 1: field has not had a lot of time to go 686 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:31,279 Speaker 1: back into like the archives, to really pour over that 687 00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:35,760 Speaker 1: and create a comprehensive history of how the pandemic affected 688 00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:40,719 Speaker 1: people with chronic illnesses and disabilities. So again, UM, I 689 00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,200 Speaker 1: apologize if there were people. I apologize if the way 690 00:43:44,239 --> 00:43:47,280 Speaker 1: I wrote that episode made people feel excluded or anything 691 00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:49,560 Speaker 1: like that. I I feel like there's a lot of 692 00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:55,240 Speaker 1: complicated stuff with this, So thank you again to Caroline 693 00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:59,120 Speaker 1: for sending that note. UM, if you would like to 694 00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:01,360 Speaker 1: write to us about the US or any other podcast 695 00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:04,640 Speaker 1: or history podcast at i heeart radio dot com. We're 696 00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:07,200 Speaker 1: also all over social media at MS in History, and 697 00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:09,320 Speaker 1: that's where you'll find our Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest 698 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:13,239 Speaker 1: and Instagram, and you can subscribe to our show on 699 00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:16,080 Speaker 1: the i heeart Radio app and Apple Podcasts and anywhere 700 00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:24,160 Speaker 1: else that you get your podcasts. Stuff you missed in 701 00:44:24,239 --> 00:44:26,960 Speaker 1: History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For 702 00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:29,759 Speaker 1: more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart 703 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,920 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 704 00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:33,640 Speaker 1: favorite shows.