Esperanto Revolutionaries and Geeks: Language Politics, Digital Media and the Making of an International Community
- Автор: Fians Guilherme
- Год: 2022
- Язык: русский
- Жанр: Культурология
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Analysing the use of the Corsican language, Matei Candea (2010: 132—133) illustrates how people from mainland France on Corsica had the habit of mixing Corsican pronunciation with French speech as a way to demonstrate a deep and long-term connection with the island. In Esperantujo, when trying to display ease with the language, Esperan- tists seek to speak in a way closer to what is conveyed as 'standard'. As they do this, other Esperantists in the same conversation derive pleasure from searching for the influence of their interlocutors' mother tongue(s) in the interlocutors' speech, as a way to infer their nationality from the way they speak Esperanto: while the speaker tries to hide it, the listener pays particular attention to it. These recurrent practices both cement and highlight the links between one's national and linguistic backgrounds.
Furthermore, particularities in phrasal construction and accents are frequently complemented by interjections that people, often unreflec- tively, utter in their mother tongues when speaking Esperanto. The best illustration of these is exclamations such as ben oui, bon and enfin among native speakers of French, and oh and ok, among English native speakers. Even though Esperanto has its interjections, these are rarely used in spontaneous reactions during a conversation.
Even though Esperanto has its recognised language standards, there is considerable room for manoeuvre. While hegemonic, national languages have authoritative rules on what is linguistically correct or incorrect (Jaffe 1993: 103), Esperanto and its speech community are presented as being more tolerant with 'mistakes' and appreciative of non-standard varieties—which are embraced as a constitutive feature of Esperantujos national diversity. This is carried out in practice by means of greater flexibility on how correctness and error are defined—as long as mutual intelligibility is not compromised. However, in cases where non-fluent speakers try to engage in meaningful conversations without having a developed command of the language, they commonly improvise by drawing on their prior linguistic knowledge, as I analyse in Chapter 5. When intelligibility is at risk or speakers want to erase doubts about the adequacy of a word during a conversation, Esperantists may resort to pocket dictionaries or online dictionaries on their mobile phones. However, I seldom saw people code-switching or seeking refuge in words in other languages during the Universal Congress, as this could compromise the frame established through the use of Esperanto.
Reaching back to our conversation over lunch, while my accent revealed that I was not French, something similar happened to Alberto: the way he pronounced his Rs and Bs, his 'look' and his name raised the possibility of the US representative at the congress not being a US national, which was confirmed when he said he was kubano, a Cuban national. The same happened with the representative of Luxembourg, who was actually a British national living in Luxembourg for many years and married to a French Esperantist. Paradoxically, despite him greeting the participants on behalf of Luxembourg, there were no Luxembourgers at the congress. As people shared a meal and chatted, they found in practice that the country displayed on their badges did not necessarily stand for their nationality—or country of origin, or culture or mother tongue. Similarly, the South Korean National Evening showed the audi- ence that Korean music goes beyond K-Pop, and the presentations about the Korean language, cuisine and history challenged the basic and essen- tialised knowledge that most non-Korean Esperantists held about South Korea.
In sum, encounters at international Esperanto meetings frequently revolve around a very Herderian notion of nationality and culture. Placed under the spotlight, national diversity becomes expressed through country of origin, country of residence, culture and language, as well as performed and reified through accents, ethnicity, clothing, musical preferences and certain experiences to be shared. Esperantists come to hold certain expectations about other Esperantists' nationalities by initially imagining these in a recognisable and stereotyped manner. Yet, Esperantists also know that such displays of national otherness may not be exactly as they previously imagined. In building Esperantujo's internationality from an assemblage of nationalities, Esperantists draw lines distinguishing nationalities so that they can later cross these lines and overcome this Herderian view. Through cosmopolitan sociabilities, national diversity comes to be better understood. Nonetheless, problems arise when, rather than nationalities, the Universal Congress becomes a stage for nationalisms.
4.6 On Behalf of Catalonia
At the opening ceremony, as the countries' greetings were coming to an end, Ferran saluted the congress on behalf of the Catalan Esperanto Association. This challenged the organisation of the event in a twofold manner. Firstly, only national Esperanto associations recognised by UEA have the right to join the country's greetings, and UEA's allegiance to the UN's and UNESCO's parameters for the recognition of sovereign states prevents the congress from acknowledging a Catalan representa- tive (UEA's current representative in that region is the Spanish Esperanto Association). Secondly, the tensions between Catalonia and Spain turned a celebration of national diversity into a political statement that clashed with Esperantos principles of creating a diplomatic, non-confrontational space. This led to criticism by UEA's committee members and other congress participants, both during the ceremony and afterwards, who did not welcome Ferran's stand. If building a community also entails estab- lishing social boundaries to distinguish its members from non-members (Barth 1969), Esperantujo too has its outsiders and contested insiders.
As this community revolves around a language, one of its most evident boundaries is drawn on language skills. Even though potentially anyone is welcome to learn the language and join the community, those who do not speak Esperanto are excluded from Esperantujo. Likewise, being an Esperanto learner but not being fluent in it can hinder one's partici- pation in the Universal Congress or one's ability to understand nuances in spoken and written exchanges in the language. Additionally, people who do not share the cosmopolitan principles that turn international Esperanto meetings into celebrations of national diversity—for instance, people likely to discriminate against certain nationalities—would not be welcome in Esperantujo. However, those displaying these traits would not likely show an interest in joining Esperantujo in the first place.
Well-known among Esperantists is also the figure of the strangulo, the 'crank' or 'weirdo'. As explained by Forster (1982), Esperantists often use this term to define fellow Esperantists seen as eccentric or odd, particu- larly when it comes to their ways of promoting Esperanto. Those who wear entirely green outfits covered with Esperanto stars, who insist that everyone must learn this language, or who convey an image of Esperanto as the ultimate solution for all the world's problems—a solution that would, alone, bring about universal peace—are often labelled as such. However, in transmitting an undesirable image of Esperanto to non- Esperantists, the weirdos represent a threat to the promotion of the language, more than to those who have already joined Esperantujo.
Yet, reaching back to the Catalan salute, the most controver- sial figure in Esperantujo is the one who brings up nationalities in contentious ways. Aside from greeting the congress participants, Ferran also customised his badge: it read Hispanio (Spain) before he scrib- bled over the country's name and wrote Katalunio (Catalonia) above it. As the French couple sitting behind me during the opening ceremony demonstrated, Ferran's way of showing his allegiance to Catalonia was widely contested and seen as inopportune. In spotlighting his 'country' through a political statement, rather than a display of his nationality, this act recalled nationalism and was perceived as hostility against Spain. Even though he had greeted particularly the Spanish participants in the congress, he did so on the condition that, by the following year, Catalonia would be recognised as independent.