Precerpt from My 20th Language: L5, Esperanto
My sophomore year in high school, the year I began studying French, our world history teacher assigned major reports. We had a choice of topic, and, from the list, I chose Babel. Even in high school, I was already fascinated with languages. The topic of Babel took me to the topic of what was the original language of humans. Was there an inherent language common to all? That led me to ask, can there be a language common to all in the present day? And that led me to Esperanto. Babel: The Turning Point in Human Speech Before Babel, people are said to have shared one common language—a unified system of communication that allowed effortless understanding and cooperation. In that world, words carried no borders; speech flowed freely across generations and regions. Humanity’s linguistic unity mirrored its collective ambition: to build, to create, to reach heaven itself. Then came Babel, the moment of linguistic divergence. According to the story, human pride in building the great tower...