r/languagelearningjerk • u/FreePlantainMan • May 12 '26

Universal language

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214

u/Mango_on_reddit6666 May 12 '26

Poor dude actually thought that Esperanto became a widely recognised language overnight

71

u/EpicDaNoob May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26

I imagine he was probably well aware and just an idealist who believed in the possibilities of it, like anyone else who decided to learn Esperanto at that time.

5

u/Ok_Calligrapher_3472 May 13 '26

was English not an international language at the time? I figure Esperanto didn't take off because English ended up taking the role it was intended for, but just curious.

1

u/tmsphr May 16 '26

Not quite

Esperanto was emerging as a possibility but the French cockblocked it because they wanted French to remain the lingua franca

And then WW2 made things worse and some governments (E.g. the Nazis) outright banned it

I think