Famous Esperanto speakers: who really spoke it?

Several well-known people had a documented connection with Esperanto, but few were fluent speakers. Daniel Bovet, winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Medicine, grew up with it. The economist Reinhard Selten (Nobel Prize 1994) spoke it fluently and wrote a book in it. Leo Tolstoy learned to read it and publicly supported it, J. R. R. Tolkien learned it as a teenager and backed it in 1932, and Pope John Paul II gave greetings in Esperanto. Many other names on popular lists – Tito, Ho Chi Minh, Einstein – are exaggerated or unproven.

We distinguish five kinds of connection: native (learned from birth), fluent (used it actively), learned (studied it, with some ability), wrote (published in it) and supported (spoke in favour without real knowledge).

#Which famous people spoke Esperanto?

#Did Tolstoy speak Esperanto?

He could read it. In a letter of 1894, later printed by Esperanto magazines and newspapers in Odessa, Tolstoy wrote that after receiving an Esperanto grammar and dictionary he could read the language freely after no more than about two hours of study (another version says three to four). He called the effort to spread Esperanto a Christian cause.

His support had a price. In 1895 the magazine La Esperantisto printed one of his essays in Esperanto, and Russian censors banned it – see the history of Esperanto.

#Did Tolkien support Esperanto?

Yes, for a time. Tolkien learned Esperanto before 1909; a notebook from about that year contains short Esperanto texts. In May 1932 The British Esperantist published his letter "A Philologist on Esperanto", in which he admitted he could neither write nor speak the language well, but ended with the advice "Back Esperanto loyally". He also served as an honorary adviser to the British Esperanto Association's education committee.

Later he grew sceptical. In a 1956 letter he described Volapük, Esperanto, Ido and Novial as "dead", because no one had given them legends. Note that Nevbosh, a language Tolkien invented with his cousins, has nothing to do with Esperanto.

#Did Pope John Paul II speak Esperanto?

He used it publicly but there is no evidence he was fluent. In 1991, at World Youth Day in Częstochowa, he greeted pilgrims in Esperanto. From Easter 1994 he included Esperanto among the languages of his Urbi et Orbi blessings at Easter and Christmas, and Benedict XVI continued the custom.

#Did Albert Einstein support Esperanto?

Only in a minor, honorary way. Einstein agreed to be honorary president of a 1923 congress of SAT, the workers' Esperanto association, according to SAT's own records. The often-quoted line "For international communication Esperanto is the best solution" is misattributed: it comes from Leopold Einstein, a German Esperanto pioneer of the 1880s.

#Which famous names are myths?

Some popular claims do not survive checking:

• Ho Chi Minh – Esperanto sources say he learned it in London around 1914–17, but no reliable primary evidence has been found.
• Josip Broz Tito – the story that he spoke Esperanto with the Austrian president Franz Jonas is a myth; Tito himself said he only studied it briefly.
• Stalin – the claim that he studied Esperanto rests only on a remark by Trotsky.
• Kim Il-sung, Che Guevara, Liu Shaoqi – no evidence of any Esperanto knowledge.
• Jules Verne – he began a novel, Voyage d'études (1903), in which a character teaches Esperanto, but there is no evidence he spoke it. His son removed the Esperanto references when he finished the book.

#Who are the famous people of the Esperanto world itself?

Within the community, the best-known names are writers and organisers rather than celebrities:

• L. L. Zamenhof – creator of the language; see his biography.
• Hector Hodler (1887–1920) – Swiss journalist who founded the Universal Esperanto Association in 1908.
• Ivo Lapenna (1909–1987) – lawyer, UEA president 1964–74, key figure behind the 1954 UNESCO resolution.
• Claude Piron (1931–2008) – UN translator, psychologist and author of the learners' novel Gerda malaperis!
• William Auld (1924–2006) – Scottish poet, reportedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature; see Esperanto literature.
• Lidia Zamenhof (1904–1942) – Zamenhof's daughter, Esperanto teacher, murdered at Treblinka.
• Chuck Smith – American Esperantist who founded the Esperanto Wikipedia in 2001 and co-led the team behind the first Duolingo Esperanto course.

For people who learned Esperanto from birth, see native Esperanto speakers; for the organisations these people built, see Esperanto organisations.

#Common questions

#Did J. R. R. Tolkien speak Esperanto?

Not fluently. He learned it as a teenager and could read it, and in 1932 he publicly urged support for Esperanto, but he wrote that he could neither speak nor write it well.

#Which Nobel Prize winners spoke Esperanto?

Daniel Bovet (Medicine, 1957) grew up with Esperanto, and Reinhard Selten (Economics, 1994) was an active, fluent Esperantist who co-wrote a book in it.

#Does William Shatner speak Esperanto?

No. He learned his Esperanto lines phonetically for the 1966 film Incubus, without learning the language.

#Did George Soros speak Esperanto?

Yes, as a child. His father Tivadar Soros, an Esperanto writer, raised him with the language, and George attended the 1947 World Congress in Bern. Whether he counts as a native speaker is disputed.

#Did Einstein speak Esperanto?

There is no evidence that he did. He accepted an honorary role at a 1923 Esperanto workers' congress, and the famous Einstein quote about Esperanto belongs to Leopold Einstein, a different person.

#Sources

• Wikipedia, Daniel Bovet, Reinhard Selten and Rudolf Carnap; Nobel Prize, Reinhard Selten – facts
• Vikipedio, Lev Tolstoj; Wikipedia, La Esperantisto
• Tolkien Library, "The Educational Value of Esperanto" – Tolkien in The British Esperantist; Tolkien and Esperanto; Wikipedia, J. R. R. Tolkien
• Vikipedio, Johano Paŭlo la 2-a; Wikipedia, International Union of Catholic Esperantists
• Wikipedia, George Soros and Tivadar Soros
• Vikipedio, Josip Broz Tito; La Ondo de Esperanto, on Tito and Esperanto
• SAT-Amikaro, Albert Einstein, Esperanto kaj SAT; Vikipedio, Albert Einstein
• Wikipedia, László Polgár, Ba Jin, Kenji Miyazawa, Vasili Eroshenko, The Barsac Mission, Incubus (1966 film)
• Wikipedia, List of Esperanto speakers