Science communication in the international auxiliary language Esperanto

First published in 1887 by Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, Esperanto is the most successful constructed language, with speakers all around the globe and even native speakers.

The relationship between Esperanto and science starts very early: the scientific journal Internacia Scienca Revuo was created in 1904 and the International Esperantist Science Association (ISAE) was founded in 1907 (Wera Blanke, Scienca Revuo 206, 2006). Many publications and books about scientific topics have since been written or translated in Esperanto. 

Esperanto has initially been envisioned as a lingua franca to be used in international communication, both in general and for scientific purposes. While English has since taken this role, there is still a desire to maintain and develop the scientific culture and the related terminology in Esperanto. Science outreach is one way to achieve this goal, and new projects have appeared in the last few years.

Esperanto represents an interesting challenge for outreach : being a more neutral language, not related to a specific country or ethnic group, the community of speakers (albeit small) is by essence more international and more diverse than in national languages. This is an opportunity, but also comes with some difficulties.

In this work, I’ll discuss the advantages and obstacles of communicating science in Esperanto. I’ll present various projects of science communication in Esperanto, with a focus on my personal experience with my YouTube channel D-ro Loĉjo, where I do videos about science and in particular about planetary science.