Linguimericks—Book ६७ SpecGram Vol CLXXXV, No 4 Contents How Does Art Mean? Parsing the Grammar of Fine Art—Morris McConaughey

Letters from Esperantoland

Dr. Ho Ping

Our special correspondent Dr. Ho Ping keeps us up to date and in the loop with all things Esperantic.

Let it not be said that Esperanto, the world’s most successful constructed language, is a language without a culture! This was of course J. R. R. Tolkien’s criticism, and has remained a perennial means of knocking the excellence of Esperanto. No more, however! At a recent gathering of La Internacia Federacio de Esperantaj Bakistoj, I was privileged to bake bread with fully Esperanto ingredients. Kiel bongusta!

First up, it all started with some flashcards with the key vocabulary for baking. Familiar to any true Esperantist are faruno and forno, but we also had kuirilajn pesilojn and even elektrajn mergoboligilojn! Then the action started: la Tutmonda Komitato por Esperantaj Ingrediencoj had done a marvelous job of packaging up the flour, salt and what-not in special Esperanto packageswhich we delivered in Esperanto-themed vans. We had La Zamenhofan Kamionon, La Verdan Kamionon and the Tutmondan Paclingvan Kamionon which all arrived playing stirring Esperanto hymns from their stereos. And then, as partoprenantoj got stuck into kneading and rolling out their dough, we had Esperanto baking-themed music played by a string quartet.

Unfortunately, the day was marred slightly when some Klingon ‘speakers’ came in and claimed they were using the venue to make cupcakes in Klingon. Ha! As if the fictional race of Klingons have any use for icing and cherries. Luckily, most of us had burned our Esperanto bread in the forno, as we’d got distracted by some Esperanto flower arrangements, so we threw them at the Klingon geeks and they ran off shouting something which sounded like it had lots of capital Qs in it.

A great victory for Zamenhof’s language and for the rich and nuanced reality that is Esperanto culture.

Vivu Esperanto!

LinguimericksBook ६७
How Does Art Mean? Parsing the Grammar of Fine ArtMorris McConaughey
SpecGram Vol CLXXXV, No 4 Contents