Esperanto is a language you probably haven't heard about

Not until early this year did I learn of the existence of this language. Esperanto is a language you probably haven't heard about.

I always thought of myself of being capable of identifying many of the world's most-spoken languages, but when a group of visitors showed up at Mwitongo in January I realized I had overestimated my capabilities.

Through their own introductions I learnt that the visitors represented several nationalities: European, Asiatic, African, and South American. But they communicated in a language that sounded familiar, and one I could not identify. Sometimes the pronunciations sounded Spanish, but I just could not figure out what language was used.

The group of Esperanto-speaking visitors to Butiama

I asked and was told they were speaking Esperanto, a language first developed by a Polish physician, Dr. Ludwig L. Zamenhof, in 1887. One of his objectives in constructing a new language was to enable all nationalities to have a common language of communication.

Esperanto's grammar is derived from Romance and Germanic languages, while its vocabulary is derived from Slavic languages.

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Here's more information on Esperanto:

http://esperanto.org/us/USEJ/world/index.html

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Worldwide estimates of users of Esperanto range from 2 to 10 million.

The visitors to Butiama had taken time off from a meeting of Esperanto users held in the nearby town of Bunda.