Nehaveigur

Compared to the other languages I attempted to learn as a kid, Esperanto was easy. Already knowing German, English, Latin and some Russian meant that I was familiar with the vocabulary, since most words in Esperanto have their origin in the Germanic and Romance languages. The regular structure of the grammar meant that I could learn the basics in an afternoon. Another thing that helped was that my grandfather had been a leading member of the Esperanto community in the mid-20th century. He had written on the topic extensively and there were several Esperanto dictionaries in our house. He had died many years before I was born and we never met each other, but I believe that there is something in the way my mind is formed that is similar to his, and that this something attracted both of us to Esperanto.

Most of all I liked the idea of starting a language from scratch. By creating a new language, it’s possible to jettison the inefficiencies and illogical aspects of the old ones. It’s the same thing I like about Quikscript, a constructed alphabet. More generally, I enjoy thinking about what it’d take to start parts of our civilization from scratch, even though I have learned since that those attempts will fail, and that even if they had some success, replacing the old, organically grown ways is likely to backfire in unforeseen ways.