Interlinguistics and Esperanto Studies
Photo by: Andrzej Szozda
Those who do not speak Esperanto may find it a bit odd that a number of people communicate, formulate ideas and establish relationships with each other using words and structures that started on a single person’s desk. And yet Esperanto and a great number of other international auxiliary languages do exist and have developed over time into speech communities and language movements, constituting a remarkable phenomenon. Understanding the linguistic, social, political, historical and psychological aspects of communication that Esperanto mediates is the goal of Esperanto Studies. This field of research has existed since at least the early twentieth century, for almost as long as the language itself, to explore the developments undergone and the forms taken by Esperanto in the face of ever-changing global circumstances.
Esperanto is also the subject of study of a cognate field: that of Interlinguistics. Conceived in order to analyse ‘artificial’ or ‘planned’ languages, Interlinguistics primarily explores languages designed for international and intercultural communication. However, it increasingly also looks at constructed languages oriented towards philosophical purposes, as well as artistic languages designed for dystopian literature, futuristic movies and the creation of fantastic imagined worlds.
Conferences about
Esperanto Studies
CALL FOR PROPOSALS TO THE 46th CONFERENCE ON ESPERANTO STUDIES
CED invites scholars, researchers, and other congress participants to participate in the 46th Esperanto Studies Conference, organized under the auspices of the Centre for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems (CED). The conference will be hybrid, allowing both online and on-site participation, and will take place within the framework of the 109th Universal Congress of Esperanto in Arusha, Tanzania (August 3rd to 10th, 2024).
The conference programme will include several twenty-minute presentations selected from the submitted proposals, with a final roundtable discussion on current research challenges in Esperanto Studies. We welcome proposals on Esperanto-related topics from fields such as linguistics, history, sociology, economics, law, anthropology, and literary studies, as well as interdisciplinary contributions. Proposals analyzing aspects of Esperanto and interlinguistics connected to the congress theme – Language, people and environment for a better world – are particularly encouraged. In this regard, proposals comparing Esperanto, the Swahili language, and other African lingua franca – linguistically, socially, anthropologically, among other ways, would be highly appreciated. Based on the papers presented, some authors will be invited to edit their texts for publication in the journal Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies.
We invite all researchers, especially early careers and first-time participants, to submit paper proposals. Proposals, consisting of 150 to 200 words, should be sent to the email address ek46@interlingvistiko.net. We also request proponents to indicate whether they intend to present in person or online (candidates for virtual presentations, please note the Tanzanian time zone, UTC+3).
The deadline for proposals is April 30th, 2024.
To check the programme of previous Esperanto Studies Conferences, visit the CED website.
Mark Fettes and Bengt-Arne Wickström
Organizers of EK 2024
What are Esperanto Studies Conferences?
Since 1978 the Esperanto Studies Conferences have consolidated themselves as the most important forums where scholars, students and curious non-academics discuss and jointly research all phenomena related to Esperanto, interlinguistics, international communication and language politics. The Esperanto Studies Conferences take place annually, within the framework of the World Esperanto Congresses, and their programme includes lectures, papers, poster presentations and open debates. The key goals of these conferences are to foster a collaborative, participatory space that stimulates experimentation and original approaches to the topics within its scope. Each year the conference has a core theme, but more general papers are also welcome. Using Esperanto as its working language, these conferences also act as horizontal learning spaces where scholars share academic research findings with the wider Esperanto-speaking community.
Under the auspices of CED, the Esperanto Studies Conferences were initiated by Detlev Blanke. Their continuous realisation was made possible by Christer Kiselman, Mélanie Maradan, Orlando Raola, Humphrey Tonkin and Guilherme Fians. The proceedings of several conferences can be ordered at UEA’s Bookshop. A number of papers from Esperanto Studies Conferences taking place after 2014 are regularly published in the journal Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies (see below).
Previous Conferences 2011 - 2016
Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies
Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies (EES) is a peer-reviewed journal that promotes an interdisciplinary understanding of all phenomena related to Esperanto and Interlinguistics more broadly. It therefore welcomes original research on the linguistic, historical, literary, psychological, sociological and political aspects of Esperanto. In addition to research articles and book reviews, EES also publishes more experimental manuscripts about ongoing projects and selected contributions from the Esperanto Studies Conferences.
The key goal of EES is to stimulate new approaches to Esperanto Studies and Interlinguistics, as well as to support interdisciplinary exchanges and collaboration in the field. Constructive feedback from EES’s Editorial Board and reviewers aims to help researchers improve their work so that, in the future, they can also publish their contributions in peer-reviewed journals in other languages.
EES is published under the auspices of CED since 2019. Its current editors are Christopher Gledhill and Klaus Schubert.
Archives of the journal ‘Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies’
Keep up to date
‘Information for Interlinguists’ (IfI) is a quarterly bulletin/ newsletter published by CED and ESF, containing up-to-date information, announcements and news in the fields of both Interlinguistics and Esperanto Studies.
Our most recent issue
Mem kontribuu
We very much welcome contributions from our readers. Please send us information on recent articles and publications, summaries of presentations, announcements of upcoming events, and general information on anything and everything related to interlinguistics and Esperanto studies. Thank you! IpI@interlingvistiko.net.
Deadlines for us to receive your contributions:
31st March
30th June
30th September
31st December
Preparing IfI kaj IpI
Simon Davies collects articles, edits, formats, translates between the languages and publishes IfI and IpI.
Information for Interlinguists
Brief notes on the history and forerunners of IpI and IfI
- Novaĵletero por Interlingvistoj (Newsletter for Interlinguists) was edited by Ulrich Lins from 1974 until 1977 (four issues in Esperanto).
- The second series of ‘Informilo por Interlingvistoj’ (IpI) appeared between 1983 and 1990, edited by Ryszard Rokicki, with help from Detlev Blanke, Charles Power, Edward Symoens and Ebbe Vilborg. Esperanto only.
- From 1992 until 2016 Detlev Blanke edited ‘Informilo por Interlingvistoj’ (IpI). Esperanto only. 100 issues in total – plus an index.
Archive
If you wish to download an issue of ‘Information for Interlinguists’ published in or after 2017, please browse our archive (link coming soon). The archive allows you to search for a particular article or search using one or more keywords; you can also search for a particular year’s collection using the Table of Contents. Happy browsing!
Interlinguistische Informationen is a German-language newsletter in a similar format and with a similar focus to ‘Information for Interlinguists’. It was published by Gesellschaft für Interlinguistik (GIL) between 1992 and 2016. For more information and to download specific issues, please visit Gesellschaft für Interlinguistik e.V.The blog run by GIL(in German) publishes up-to-date news.