In a recent reprint of the Unua Libro (first book), editor Gene Keyes said that when he first started the project in 2000, he did a search for Esperanto on Google and it yielded over 1 million hits. At the completion of his task in February of 2007, the same search yielded over 34 million hits. Out of curiosity, after I had read that I did the same search and it yielded over 39.2 million hits. That's up over 5 million in two months. So it's growing. Slowly (or maybe not so slowly!)

I just did another check as I wrote this. 74 million hits. That's more than double in less than a year!

Further, Wikipedia hosts around 250 different languages. Esperanto ranks 19th in the most numerous articles category.

More than these languages to name a few.

21 Slovak

22 Czech

Even Arabic, one of the six official languages of the UN, only rates at 33rd.

Ido comes at 58th

Interlingua rings in at 106th.

Lobjan 150th

Klingon 211th (just out of interest)

Interestingly, Volapuk ranged in at 15th. Which considering that it was practically rolled over by the newer constructed languages is really unusual.

Using Wikipedia to ascertain its viability is probably as good as any poll or census you could take. The problem with constructed languages being of course that they tend to be wide spread, which makes taking an accurate sensus almost impossible. Check for yourself.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias

Another indicator might be that when the Beijing World Congress of Esperanto was held, it numbered 2031 participants, not including the youth movement and non delegates, which tipped the scale over 6000.

Finally, there is currently $600 million plus a year being spent on translation services at the UN, and a similar amount in the EU, because no one nationality wants to loose the prestige of owning one of the 'working' languages in each of those institutions. This a huge waste of resources that might otherwise go to feeding and housing those less fortunate. A single working language, easily learnt (less than a year to become fluent) would certainly go along way towards that goal. The Universal Esperanto Asociation (UEA) currently holds observer status (class B) at the UN and UNESCO. So there is some movement towards this goal.

Here is a short and sweet lesson. More detailed on-line courses are available as well as mail courses. Esperanto clubs are readily available in most areas. Correspondence is also readily available.

Each Esperanto letter has only one sound, always. Here is a guide to some of the sounds. The stress is always on the next-to-last syllable of a word.

A - 'AH' as in palm

E - 'EH' as in there

I - 'EE' as in three

O - 'OH' as in glory

U - 'OO' as in too

c = ts (in lots); oj = oy (in boy); G = g (in go) kn are always pronounced separately: k-nabo

Just to drive the point home. Letter sounds 'NEVER' change and 'NEVER' have more than one sound.

Numbers and colours:

0 nulo (say: noo-lo)

1 unu (say: oo-noo)

2 du (say: doo)

3 tri (say: t-ri)

4 kvar (say: k-vahr)

5 kvin (say: k-veen)

6 ses (say: sehs)

7 sep (say: sehp)

8 ok (say: ohk)

9 naŭ (now)

10 dek

11 dek unu

...

20 dudek

21 dudek unu

...

30 tridek

31 tridek unu

...

100 cent (say: tsent)

flava (flah-vah) yellow

verda (vehr-dah) green

blua (bloo-ah) blue

blanka (blahn-kah) white

nigra (nee-grah) black

griza (gree-zah) grey

bruna (broo-nah) brown

ruĝa (roo-jah) red

("ĝ" as in "gem", "gentle")

All nouns end in 'O'

All adjectives end in 'A'

All adverbs end in 'E'

All past tense verbs end in -is (say: ees)

All present tense verbs end in -as (say: ahs)

All future tense verbs end in -os (say: ohs)

Example:

La bona (adjective) knabo (noun) trinkis (past tense verb) malrapide (adverb).

(The good boy drank slowly)

By applying markers to the words it allows us some flexibility in word order. (Remember, Esperanto is intended as a language that can be spoken by many different groups, and they don't all use the subject - verb - object word order. For example, German usually places the verb at the end.)

Word construction follows a very easy system which uses a small system of prefixes and suffixes. For example

By placing the -in- suffix before the final 'O', you make it feminine.

Patro - Father

Patrino - Mother

Filo - Son

Filino - Daughter

Frato - Brother

Fratino - Sister

By placing the prefix Bo- in front you get the in-laws (or out-laws depending on your point of view.)

Bopatro - Father in law

Bopatrino - Mother in law

Bofilo - Son in law

Bofilino - Daughter in law

Bofrato - Brother in law

Bofratino - Sister in law

By placing the -id- suffix before the final 'O', you make it an off-spring.

Hundo - dog

Hundido - puppy

Kato - cat

Kitido - kitten

Koko - chicken

Kokido - chick

By placing the prefix Mal- in front you get the opposite.

Bona - good

Malbona - bad

Seka - Dry

Malseka - wet

This system stays the same throughout.

Below I've listed just a few sites of interest, including a Brazilian site that has a free down loadable instructional program with interactive pages; a very good program. You can sign up for tutors on this site.

Here's something interesting.

There are even native speakers of Esperanto. The number is considered to be in the 2000 range. These are people who are the product of couples who have met through Esperanto and each speaks different languages. Therefore the house hold language is Esperanto.

Search for speakers with Pasporta Servo the International Hospitality Service using Esperanto.

http://www.tejo.org/eo/ps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasporta_Servo

With these services available you can visit many countries very cheaply, find a plethora of friends and more importantly learn about their culture and language.

There are a wide range of cultural materials available also. I spend a good deal of my time listening to Esperanto music. I find it helps in tuning my ear to it. Also, there is no lack of original and translated written works to enjoy.

Like the Klingon said, 'you haven't lived until you've read Shakespear in it's original Klingon.' (Please note tongue firmly planted in cheek). Yeah well, wait till you read him in Esperanto.

Ĝis!

Edit: In reviewing Interlingua, the main problem that I see is the vocabulary isn't interconnected like in Esperanto. With one root word I can create the other words as needed. With Interlingua, although I'll admit that the majority of the words may be known in one form or another, they still need to be learnt individually. That doesn't make it as simple and quick to learn.