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UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
January 24, 1969 Ronald L. Burris, President
Dear Mr. Burris, A copy of the letter which you addressed to the Editor to the World Almanac, Mr. Luman H. Long, has been sent to me. My reply follows. You refer to the excellent article in the (1968) Encyclopedia Britannica initialed M.B. The author is Marjorie Boulton, a charming woman, a poet of outstanding talent -- but not an authority of linguistic demography. She mentions (but does not “quote”) Professor Mario Pei as suggesting a total of 8,000,000 speakers of Esperanto. Since no source is indicated, it is not possib1e to determine with confidence exactly what statement provides the basis for that figure. In Dictionary of Linguistics (1954, page 68) he says “At the present time, the number of speakers and users of Esperanto is estimated at 8,000,000.” (my underlining). In Language for the World (1958, page 200) he says “The number of Esperanto speakers throughout the world today comes close to half a million (though something like eight million are said to have some acquaintance with the language)...” (my underlining). You state that “some authorities feel that Mr. Pei’s estimate is too low, and the number of Esperantists is around 15,000,000...” I have encountered no such authorities. It is not difficult to find such a figure, but not one offered by a responsible source. An examp1e: (Revista da Semana, 9-11-46, a popular Brazilian magazine) “15 MILHOES DE PESSOAS FALAM a mais jovem em de todas as linguas” (15 million persons speak the youngest of all languages). The reporter, however, is simply a writer of articles of general interest who, in this case, got his material from an old friend of mine, Prof. Roberto das Neves, who actually said that 15 million persons have, at one time or another, studied Esperanto. Officials of international Esperanto organizations generally avoid estimating the number of speakers of Esperanto, pointing out, sensibly enough, the difficulties involved. In 1953, the Honorary Director of the Center of Research and Documentation, Prof. Ivo Lapenna, (La Internacia Lingvo, page 142) wrote “At the end of 1953 UEA...had members in 84 different countries and it represented in all 16,861 organised esperantists and about 380,000 persons who speak the International Language. These figures are constantly increasing.” Since that time the membership of UEA, by far the largest Esperanto organization, has not quite doubled. Has the number of speakers of Esperanto increased, during the same period, by over twenty times? In any case, what would be the source of an authoritative figure? UEA has recently proposed (several times) undertaking a census, but has not yet done so. The only serious, planned, and sustained effort in this direction bas been my own, which was based on a stratified sampling procedure and which I personally carried out in dozens of countries in both hemispheres. The results were presented in a lecture at the Sorbonne which was attended by many eminent Esperantists. No one challenged the procedures or results, and there was general agreement that they represented the most objective attempt yet undertaken to approximate a figure for the number of speakers of Esperanto. When--and if--I find it possible to increase my estimate to a rounded two million, you may be sure that I shall do so with considerable pleasure. When--and if--the figure reaches 8,000,000 I, for one, will consider the general acceptance of Esperanto to be early and inevitable. I follow the publications in and about Esperanto with close attention. It is, of course, possible that data relevant to the number of speakers may escape my attention. If you encounter any material on this topic, I should be greatly in your debt if you would drop me a note about it. Meanwhile, I wish every success to those who devote their time to the effort to erase the curse of Babel. If you are ever in this area, please visit me at the University of Washington, and we can discuss the topic more fully, preferably in Esperanto. Sincerely, Sidney S. Culbert
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