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From: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Subject: Quantifying Esperanto's Internationalness
Message-ID: <E2JGK6.KMq@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Reply-To: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Organization: Seattle Community Network
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 03:33:42 GMT
Lines: 82


To try to get some sort of statistical handle on Esperantists' claim of 
their language's "internationalness" (in *use* more than in *etyma*), I 
have analysed issue no. 0112 of the biweekly newsmagazine _Eventoj_.  
_Eventoj_ is published in Hungary, and is entirely in Esperanto except 
for a couple of lines in the colophon.  I chose this issue because it has an 
article of mine in it, and it was at hand.

The issue analysed contains material originating in 24 countries.  There 
is a noticeable European bias:  only 8 of the source countries are *not* 
in Europe (Asia 3; Africa 3; N America 1; S America 1).

Hungary leads the list both in number of items (14) and number of column 
inches (47) [non-US readers:  an inch is a bit over 2.5 cm; we still use 
them here!].  Germany is second in both respects:  7 and 46.

Here are the results:

By number of items:        (Col.      By column inches:            (no. of
                           ins.)                                   items)
1   Hungary        14         47   |  1   Hungary          47       14
2   Germany         7         46   |  2   Germany          46        7
3   Switzerland     4         11   |  3   Norway           45        1
4   Denmark         3         10   |  4   Russia           21        1
5   Sweden          3          7   |  5   Korea            13        1
6   France          2         10   |  6   Switzerland      11        4
7   Croatia         2          8   |  7   Denmark          10        3
8   Brazil          2          7   |  8   France           10        2
9   Czech Republic  2          7   |  9   USA               9        1
10  Netherlands     2          7   |  10  Croatia           8        2
11  Italy           2          6   |  11  Sweden            7        3
12  UK              2          3   |  12  Brazil            7        2
13  Norway          1         45   |  13  Czech Republic    7        2
14  Russia          1         21   |  14  Netherlands       7        2
15  South Korea     1         13   |  15  Italy             6        2
16  USA             1          9   |  16  Japan             4        1
17  Japan           1          4   |  17  UK                3        2
18  Finland         1          3   |  18  Finland           3        1
19  Ukraine         1          3   |  19  Ukraine           3        1
20  Madagascar      1          2   |  20  Madagascar        2        1
21  Mozambique      1          2   |  21  Mozambique        2        1
22  Serbia          1          2   |  22  Serbia            2        1
23  Iran            1          1   |  23  Iran              1        1
24  Tanzania        1          1   |  24  Tanzania          1        1

     The stories at the top of the front page were from
Korea (reviewing a newly published, 216-page, illustrated popular-science
     book on genetics--published in Esperanto in Korea, translated from
     English by a Korean professor), and
Italy (giving the Esperanto text of a congratulatory letter from the 
     President of Italy to the Esperanto-Radical Association).

I counted Northern Ireland (one item, one inch) as part of UK; assigned 
an article of joint French/British origin to France; and assigned one of 
Italian/Mozambican provenance to Mozambique.  The huge number of 
Norwegian column-inches is entirely accounted for by a two-page ad insert 
for an Esperantist gathering in Trondheim.

The column-inch measurements are imprecise:  I measured with my knuckles, 
and rounded up to the nearest inch.  I doubt if the imprecision thus 
introduced is statistically significant.

This posting is offered as very lightly saute'ed data, not to prove any 
particular point about the degree of Esperanto's actual internationality 
(which I believe to be significantly greater than that of English).  I 
want to acknowledge Karl Bunday, one of the occasional anti-Esperanto 
contributors to these arguments, for providing the stimulus for the 
exercise when he urged that such discussions in sci.lang be limited to 
the quantifiable and the verifiable.

He also wanted ISSNs.  _Eventoj_'s is 01215-959 X.

And while we're on the subject, one of the items in this issue (from 
Denmark, this one) is a mathematical proof that the number of actual 
Esperantists in the world is (more or less exactly) 999,999.  (P. 8)

...
--
Liland Brajant ROS'    			Ae, ka manu iluna oka hale,
P O Box 30091      			"O" ku'u leo "E moe maika'i," 
Seattle, WA 98103 Usono			Kani ku'u leo, ku'u hoapu,
Tel. (206) 633-2434  			Ae, ka manu iluna oka hale.
