"Let Us Work and Have Hope!": Language and Democracy
In a technological contest dominated by positive feedback mechanisms, it is important for a potential challenger to enter the contest as soon as possible to prevent the incumbent from gaining further ground. This was Zamenhof's intention when he learned of Volapuk, but he did not publish the first hand- book of Esperanto until 1887. He could have entered the contest earlier, as he had been working on an international language since he was nineteen, but his involvement in Hovevei Zion and lack of funds made it impossible to launch his project earlier. Only after he severed links with the proto-Zionist movement and prepared a final version of his manuscript did he search for a publisher. For two years his search was unsuccessful. Volapuk was already there, not to mention its offspring language projects, and no publisher thought it a good idea to invest his own resources to add another language to the list. Only after Zamenhof married and decided to use his wife's dowry to cover publishing costs did his manuscript go to press.
The first Esperanto brochure, the Unua Libro, as it was later called, was published in Russian, and shortly thereafter translated into Polish, French, and German, followed by English, Hebrew, and Yiddish the next year.^
The Unua Libro was a forty-page textbook. It had a long preface, a descrip- tion of the grammar, a small vocabulary, samples of translations, original po- etry, and blank forms that readers could send to the author to demonstrate their intention to learn the language.2 The book was published with the title International Language: Preface and Complete Grammar, under the pseud- onym Dr. Esperanto, meaning "the one who has hope," which later became the language's official name. The book included the most essential elements of the language. The description of its grammar, less inflectional than Volapuk, took only six pages. Esperanto grammar has only one case, the accusative, whereas Volapuk has four. In accordance with the ideas of Alberto Liptay and Paul Steiner, the author of Pasilingua, root words were chosen according to their frequency among Indo-European languages, which resulted in an as- cendancy of Latin words. For example, domo, from "domus," is the Esperanto word for "house," andpatro means "father." As with Volapuk, spelling is pho- netical. The Esperanto alphabet is Latin-based. It contains twenty-eight let- ters: twenty-three consonants and five vowels. Like the standardized Lithuanian, which borrowed diacritics from the Czech alphabet to distinguish itself from the Polish language and nation,3 Esperanto incorporates diacrit- ics in five consonants, ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, and ŝ, and the semivowel ŭ. To give a glimpse of the language, "Je la komenco Dio kreis la ĉielon kaj la teron" means "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
Equally important as the structure and qualities of the language, for those willing to volunteer their time and energy to create a public good such as an international language, was the strategy outlined in the Unua Libro for Esperantos expansion. By 1887, when the Unua Libro was published, the con- flicts between Schleyer and the reformists were beginning to surface. Aware of them, and eager to declare Esperanto a better project, Zamenhof presented himself as Schleyer's opposite. For example, on the second page of his book, and in bold letters, he declared: "The international language, as any other lan- guage, should be a common property, for which its author resigns forever to all personal rights to it."4
Whereas Schleyer insisted on his genius, Zamenhof claimed that his lan- guage could be amended or improved: "I am but a man, and may easily fall into error."5 To emphasize his receptivity he asked interested people to give him feedback and send their suggestions. He promised to reflect on them and make public a more definite version of the language the next year. If this new version was not entirely satisfactory, Zamenhof proposed that a representa- tive body of language users make final decisions. The Unua Libro was advanc- ing not only a new language, but also a different, potentially more engaging and participative strategy to spread the language.
Participation for the purpose of refining the language and giving it its final shape was not Zamenhofs primary directive to his future supporters, how- ever. He was honest when he asked for feedback to improve the language, but he also wanted to prevent future Esperantists from getting involved in fruit- less and potentially damaging nitpicking about this or that word or gram- matical rule. Rather than being involved in amateur linguistic discussions, he was asking his readers not only to learn, but, more urgently, to use the lan- guage right away. Whereas he was the only Esperantist, there were thousands of Volapukists, and the sooner a community of speakers emerged, the more likely Esperanto was to survive.
Since it was inconceivable that everybody would agree on all aspects of his language, he knew that sooner or later he would face the same coordina- tion problem that was poisoning the Volapukist community. But the later, the better, he thought; and when necessary or unavoidable, conflicts could be resolved democratically. In the meantime, and instead of pondering its qualities and defects, the language should be used, either to translate from other languages or to produce original work. Like the nationalist movements around him, but contrary to many Volapukists who did not think that their language was useful for literary purposes, Zamenhof wanted to create a lit- erary corpus.
His repeated insistence to learn and use the language right away, "whether the language receives a universal approbation or not," and "independent of others making the same" decision, became a pivotal component of Zamen- hof's strategy.6 It was later condensed under the buzzword "Antaŭen!" or "Go ahead!"—meaning "go ahead no matter the odds or the presumed strength of its rivals."
Zamenhof could not predict the extent to which Esperantists would heed his request to act spontaneously, or what the future held. But to facilitate things, he made it clear that he did not have a big ego or a personal interest in the language. His only interest was to provide the human race with a common good. The nature of this good was somewhat ambiguous. He made a passing reference to the political benefits of a non-national lingua franca,7 but pru- dence recommended that he focus on more pragmatic issues, such as the dis- semination of ideas and the advancement of science and commerce.
In any case, it was necessary to identify those most willing to learn the language: either because they were convinced that it could help advance the human race, or because they felt that Esperanto was something other, and more, than a language—perhaps a new initiative very much in line with other modernizing ideas opposed to tsarist rule. To do this, Zamenhof added blank forms in his Unua Libro and asked readers to send them back, to express ei- ther their disbelief or their willingness to study the language, no matter how many others followed suit. This last group of respondents, the senkondiĉuloj, or "unconditional," was Zamenhof's target. They were the building blocks of the new movement, provided that they communicated with each other and created a community of speakers.
And this was precisely the next step: to put language users in contact with each other. Zamenhof began the series of address books, which included the names and addresses of Esperanto users. The first address book was released in 1889, two years after the publication of the Unua Libro.