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From: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Subject: Zamenhof's credentials (was Re: GENDER in Esperanto)
Message-ID: <Dwrxpr.FoH@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Reply-To: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Organization: Seattle Community Network
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 1996 02:03:26 GMT
Lines: 111


Bill Taylor <mathwft@math.canterbury.ac.nz> or <W.Taylor@math.canterbury.-
ac.nz> wrote (with reference to Dr. Zamenhof--LLZ hereafter--author of 
Esperanto):

>> "... an (allegedly) expert linguist ..."

LLZ was not trained as a scientific linguist.  He was an eye doctor by 
training.  However, he *was* an accomplished polyglot, deeply *interested*
in language and languages in a number of dimensions, and gifted with a 
talent for lyrical expresssion.  His grammatical training (except, 
probably, in Hebrew and Aramaic) was mostly along traditional Latin-based
lines--(*Whose*, even among scientifically trained linguists, *wasn't* in
those days?)--a model reflected more clearly in the "16 Reguloj" of 
traditional Esperanto grammar than in the actual structure of the 
language he created.

In a recent article arguing against the notion that Zamenhof knew 
Lithuanian, Bernard Golden (Hungarian, retired archaeologist, member of 
the Akademio de Esperanto, and prolific writer on esperantological topics)
writes:     
                    Note:  [ ] enclose my interpolations

>... The result [of Golden's collation of information in three significant
>primary sources] was a compilation consisting of 12 languages, classifi-
>able in six groups.
>
>A. Ethnic languages
>     1. learnt from birth in the home or in the surroundings of his
>        family's places of residence (Bialystok, Warsaw)
>          a. Yiddish [see note 1, infra]
>          b. Russian
>          c. Polish
>     2. learnt as part of [his] Jewish religious education
>          a. Hebrew
>          b. Aramaic [see note 1, infra]
>     3. taught [to him] at home by his father [see note 2, infra]
>          a. German
>          b. French
>     4. learnt as school subjects in schools of Bialystok and Warsaw
>        [see note 3, infra]
>          a. Latin
>          b. Ancient Greek
>          c. French
>          d. German
>     5. learnt by self-instruction or with the help of a private tutor
>          a. English (English was not a subject of study in the Polish
>             schools of the time) [see note 4, infra]
>          b. Italian (use of Italian etyma to form Esperanto words,
>             knowledge of musical terminology, Italian-language cita-
>             tions)
>B. Non-ethnic languages -- planned-language projects and boyhood
>   secret languages [see note 5, infra]
>     6.   a. Volapu"k (see the treatise "Esperanto kaj Volapu"k" in
>             _Originala Verkaro_, pp. 258-275)
          --"Zamenhof kaj la litova lingvo", B. Golden, in _Dia Regno_
             (ISSN 0167-9554), julio 1996, no. 779, pp. 6-7 (54-55); my
             translation.  _Dia Regno_ is the leading Protestant 
             Esperantist monthly periodical

My notes:

1. The primary home language of LLZ's early childhood was Russian; his
parents, especially his father, while never denying their Jewishmness,
were modernizers, neither very religious nor opposed in principle to
assimilation.  I am inclined to doubt whether Yiddish was much used in his
home, and whether LLZ's Jewish education was extensive enough to really
justify including Aramaic among "his languages".  However, in his student
Zionist days, LLZ *did* write a grammatical description of Yiddish, which
is available (in a bilingual Russian-Esperanto edition) in
_Provo de gramatiko de novjuda lingvo kaj Alvoko al la juda intelektularo_,
18.90 guilders**.

2. Marko (or Marcus) Zamenhof, LLZ's father, was a secondary-school 
modern-languages professor, and a demanding taskmaster, so it is likely 
that the level of achievement both sought and attained in A.3. languages 
was higher than that in many home-schooling-in-fourt-or-fifth-languages 
situations.  An interesting raw source for study and analysis of, and 
speculation on, LLZ's polyglottal proficiencies, is his _Proverbaro 
Esperanta_ (18 guilders**), a collection of 2,630 "proverbs" intended as 
the Esperanto section of a multilingual proverb collection compiled by 
Marko Zamenhof but never published in its projected entirety.

3. Certainly Russian and possibly Polish should also appear under A.4.; 
what was the status of Polish in schools in Russian Poland in the 1860s 
and '70s?

4. While LLZ undoubtedly had *some* command of English, it is debatable
how well he knew the language and at what point in his life he knew it 
best.  English-derived words are already visible in the proto-Esperanto 
of 1881, but his Dickens translation, _Batalo de la vivo_, was made from 
the German, and his _Hamleto_ (incidentally both a very readable and a 
very actable version) was probably based mostly on one or more 
translations in other languages, though he quite possibly had and 
consulted the original (see discussion in the preface and apparatus to 
the 8th ed., ed. D.B. Gregor, and to the L N M Newell translation).

** from Libroservo de UEA:  <uea@inter.nl.net> for ordering information.
Prices quoted from UEA's 1994 _Esperanto-katalogo_; prices and 
availability subject to change without notice.

NOTE:  Two more footnotes will appear separately under the title
Zamenhof's Credentials (lastaj du notoj)



--
Liland Brajant ROS'                "Sed krom se iuj el la  homoj  malsategas,
P O Box 30091                      kiel do la socio povas posedi strukturon?"
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