Esperanto in popular culture

References to Esperanto, a constructed language, have been made in a number of films and novels. Typically, this is done either to add the exoticness of a foreign language without representing any particular ethnicity, or to avoid going to the trouble of inventing a new language. In science fiction, Esperanto is often used to represent a future in which there is a more universally spoken language than exists today.

In English-language media

*In Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film "The Great Dictator", the signs, posters, and so forth in the ghetto are in Esperanto. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032553/trivia The Great Dictator (1940) - Trivia ] ] Similarly, the movie "" (2004) is set in a generic city which writer/director David S. Goyer nevertheless wanted to represent as bilingual (as many cities are worldwide), so the second language spoken in this nameless city, and visible on most of its signage, is Esperanto. In addition, a character in "Blade" is seen watching the Esperanto-language film "Incubus". In the 1996 "Street Fighter" movie, the signs and posters in Shadaloo are in Esperanto, although written in an oriental font.

*In the 1991 "", the following dialogue ensues:
**Buster Bunny: "You see Babs, I told you music was the universal language!"
**Babs Bunny: "And here I thought it was Esperanto!"

*In the 1997 movie Gattaca, announcements within the Gattaca building are given in Esperanto.

*In Nickelodeon's cartoon "Danny Phantom", the anthropomorphic ghost wolf Wulf is a character who speaks only Esperanto, however fractured and grammatically incorrect, in the episode. The character Tucker explains to the other main characters what Esperanto is and where it came from, but said that (presumably reflecting its reputation as obscure) nowadays it is mainly "a way for geeks to communicate with other geeks."

*On the UK sci-fi sitcom "Red Dwarf", Esperanto is officially an international language, and all signs on the walls of the ship are written in both English and Esperanto (for example, "Level 147/Nivelo 147"). People are expected to be reasonably fluent in Esperanto; while characters Kryten and Lister appear to be able to speak it (or at least understand it), Rimmer has been trying to learn it for eight years and is still "utterly useless" at it. While this part of the show was prominent in the first two series, it was dropped from series 3 onwards.

*Another British comedy, The Last Salute, about the Automobile Association, or 'AA in the 1960's showed the unit supervisor as dreaming of the new post-war Great Britain and Europe as being a Worker's Paradise of sorts, with Esperanto as the universal language. Despite there being no evidence of this outside of his own aspirations, he persisted in speaking the language to his long-suffering team at briefing sessions, and to the point of conducting lessons.

*The Stainless Steel Rat novels by Harry Harrison (who was such a big fan of the language that he included contact details for the British Esperanto Society in the endpages of several of his books) also postulate a future where Esperanto is spoken, and a small fraction of the dialogue is in Esperanto. The language is also used in the setting of Philip José Farmer's Riverworld novels, as well as in stories by Poul Anderson, Mack Reynolds, John Brunner, John Barnes, and other science fiction writers (Harlow 1996).

*The introductory video for the video game Final Fantasy XI features choral music with lyrics in Esperanto. According to its composer, Nobuo Uematsu, the choice of language was meant to symbolize the developers' hope that their online game could contribute to cross-cultural communication and cooperation. Unlike many similar massively-multiplayer games which dedicate individual "copies" of their virtual worlds to players of a specific area or primary language, FFXI is deliberately designed to force players in all regions to share worlds.

*American composer Lou Harrison, who incorporated styles and instruments from many world cultures in his music, used Esperanto titles and/or texts in several of his works.

*In his book "Mein Kampf", Adolf Hitler claimed that Esperanto was part of a Jewish plot to unify the globe under one language, as part of a larger plot for world government.

*There are two instances of feature films being entirely performed in Esperanto. "Angoroj" (Esperanto for "Agonies"), 1964, was the first feature film to be produced entirely in Esperanto; "Incubus" (with English and French subtitles), a 1965 black and white horror film directed by Leslie Stevens and starring a pre-"Star Trek" William Shatner, followed. The earliest film to incorporate spoken Esperanto was the thriller "State Secret" 1950, with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who starred as an American surgeon contacted by the authorities of Vosnia, an Eastern European dictatorship, to perform a rare operation on their leader. The language spoken in "Vosnia" is Esperanto.

*The earliest film (not of feature length, however) to utilize the language was titled "Antaŭen!" ("Onwards!"), a silent Esperanto publicity film before World War II.

*More rarely, it is used jokingly, referred to as a "geek language", such as the usage seen on occasion in the animated series "Danny Phantom", where the only characters who speak it are either self-described "geeks", or a particular ghost (who is apparently more fluent in the language than the human characters, as evidenced by the difficulty Tucker Foley had in translating said ghost's comments into English). The language is also referenced in the DVD commentary for the "Firefly" episode "The Train Job": when Kaylee Frye slides out from under a console, writer Joss Whedon says this action is "Esperanto for 'mechanic'".

*The name of the beverage Yakult is derived from "jahurto", an archaic form of the Esperanto for "yoghurt" (the modern word is "jogurto").

*Esperanto has also been cited as a possible inspiration for George Orwell's Newspeak. Orwell had been exposed to Esperanto in 1927 when living in Paris with his aunt Nellie Limouzin, who was then living with Eugène Lanti, a prominent Esperantist. Esperanto was the language of the house, and Orwell, who had come to Paris in part to improve his French, was obliged to find other lodging. [cite web
title=Esperanto and George Orwell
url=http://www.geocities.com/lilandr/esperanto/div/eo1984.htm
accessdate=2006-09-13]

*The musician credits for "Blood and Chocolate", a 1986 album by Elvis Costello & the Attractions, were written in Esperanto.

*In the novel "The House of the Spirits" by "Isabel Allende", Esperanto is believed by Clara the Clairvoyant to be the language of the spirit world along with Spanish.

*In Paulo Cuelho's The Alchemist, the lead character studies to become a priest at a seminary in Andalusia where he is first required to learn Esperanto.

*Composer David Gaines' (b. 1961) Symphony No. 1 is subtitled "Esperanto", and features a mezzo-soprano soloist singing in Esperanto. It has been recorded by the Moravian Philharmonic.

*In "Castle Infinity", an early MMORPG where the world is populated by creatures who speak "Dinosaur", Esperanto was used. Throughout the game, characters exclaim "Sin Gardi! Estas Cerbo Suksoso!" which translates as "Look out! It's a Brainsucker!"

*Words and phrases in Esperanto are used several times in the artwork for the Radiohead album "OK Computer". It is also used several places on the current version of their website.

*In the beginning of the final level of "Katamari Damacy", the King of All Cosmos greets the player in Esperanto.

*The band They Might Be Giants mentions Esperanto briefly in their song "Alienation's for the Rich", from the album "They Might Be Giants".

*Sonic Youth / Jim O'Rourke released an EP called "" on Sonic Youth Records (SYR) in 1998, with all titles and credits in Esperanto.

*The Japanese manga by Chigusa Kawai, "La Esperança", notes that its characters use Esperanto (although, for readers' benefit, it has been translated into English/Japanese/French, etc...). The words on Cecile's letter to Erwin (volume II) can be clearly seen as actual Esperanto.

*In the video game by Bethesda Softworks, an in-game book titled "N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis!", often found carried by necromancers, contains Esperanto text on which several transformations have been applied.

*In 1970, Richard Corben wrote and illustrated a fantasy story entitled "Rowlf" (aka "The Story of Rowlf") that was published in "Voice of Comicdom" issues 16 & 17. The story is about a dog who, through a magic spell gone wrong, is rendered half human/half dog and must rescue his mistress from demonic invaders who all speak Esperanto. The work was reprinted in three parts in "Heavy Metal" Magazine, issues 32-34 in 1979 and 1980.

*On an episode of Saturday Night Live, during the Weekend Update segment, comedian Mike Myers once portrayed the Rolling Stones' singer Mick Jagger with Mick Jagger himself seated beside him portraying bandmate Keith Richards. Jagger answers all questions asked of him in the fake interview with unintelligible mumbling, to which Myers says, "You aren't speaking English, Keith! You're speaking Esperanto, or some sort of language that twins teach each other!"

*In Sam & Max Season One there is an out of business Esperanto bookstore on their city block.

*In Philip Reeve's sci-fi novel, Mortal Engines, set thousands of years in the future, inhabitants of the flying town of Airhaven speak "Airsperanto", a clear reference to today's Esperanto.

*In Isaac Asimov's short story "Homo Sol", Earth is implied to be a candidate to entry into a galactic federation. The psychologist who delivers the introduction to Earth's parliament does so "in their own language-a simple one which they call Esperanto."

* Esperanto appears in the alternate historical novels "A Hand-book of Volapük" by Andrew Drummond and "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" by Michael Chabon.

* In an episode of "Frasier", a creepy lounge singer tell Roz that she must be fluent in the "universal language" (meaning love), to which Frasier quips "Oh yes Roz, say something amusing in Esperanto!"

* In a 1969 guest appearance on "The Tonight Show", Jay Silverheels of "The Lone Ranger" fame appeared in character as Tonto for a comedy sketch with Johnny Carson, and claimed Esperanto skills as he sought new employment. The sketch ended with a statement of his ideal situation: "Tonto, to Toronto, for Esperanto, and pronto!"

* Also, in the Danny Phantom Episode, "Public Enemies", Danny, Tucker, and Sam come across a ghost wolf who speaks Esperanto, but only Tucker can understand at first.

* In the Elder Scrolls series of computer games, there is an in-game book titled "N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis!", meant to be an obscure arcane text on necromancy. In September 2003, a member of the Elder Scrolls forums noted that the book was written in a slightly altered form of Esperanto. The "arcane tome" is actually part of La Ranetoj, the newsletter of the Stockholm Esperanto Society.

ee also

*Esperanto culture

References

* Harlow, Don. [http://donh.best.vwh.net/Esperanto/eaccess/eaccess.book.html The Esperanto Book] . Self-published on the web (1995-96).
* Brownell, Ginamme. "Speaking up for Esperanto". "Newsweek", Aug. 11, 2003. p52.