EAB NetNews - February 2002

E A B N E T N E W S No 7 (2 Feb 2002)

*** Keeping you up-to-date about Esperanto, for people in the UK ***

1. CHORAL 'ESPERANTO' SYMPHONY COMING TO UK HIGH STREETS
2. CHILD LANGUAGE STUDY PUBLISHED IN UK JOURNAL
3. LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRIZE - IT'S TIME TO PREPARE!
4. YOUNG BRITS - THE EU PARLIAMENT WANTS YOU!
5. LABOURSTART - AND ERIC'S ESPERANTO WEBLOG
6. FUN(D)RAISING CONCERT IN BERKSHIRE
7. SCIENCE FICTION INTERVIEW REQUEST
8. 'THANK YOU, KATE' - FROM UEA!
9. OOPS!
10. FORTHCOMING EVENTS
11. ALTERNATIVE DOMAIN NAME FOR EAB
12. MORE EAB STUFF

1. CHORAL 'ESPERANTO' SYMPHONY COMING TO UK HIGH STREETS

A CD containing David Gaines's Symphony No.1 ("Esperanto") has been published in the US, and is now being distributed to retail outlets worldwide.

The composer's website http://www.davidgaines.org states:

The compact disc of Dr. Gaines' orchestral music is now available online from MMC Recordings for $14.95 plus shipping. It includes world premiere recordings of the Euphonium Concerto and the Symphony No. 1 ("Esperanto") taken from recording sessions in the Czech Republic with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in October 2000 (see below under Winter 2000-2001 for more information). The CD will soon be available in wide release at standard retail outlets such as Borders Books & Music and Amazon.com, and will remain available for purchase online through MMC Recordings.

The world premiere of the David Gaines Symphony No. 1 ("Esperanto") for mezzo-soprano and orchestra took place in October at Philharmonic Hall in Olomouc, Czech Republic. Vit Micka conducted the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra with the American mezzo Kimball Wheeler (acclaimed for her 1998 recording of Benjamin Lees' Symphony No. 4 on the Naxos label) singing. Dozens of Esperantists from across the Czech Republic were in the audience to hear this piece of musical history -- the first performance ever of a symphonic work using text in the international language Esperanto.

His website also has a list of compositions, and MP3 sample audio clips.

2. CHILD LANGUAGE STUDY PUBLISHED IN UK JOURNAL

The latest issue of The Journal of Child Language (2001, 28, 575-595), published in Cambridge, and edited in Manchester, carries a research paper on "Nativization processes in L1 Esperanto." (ie Esperanto as a first language). The research was carried out by Benjamin Bergen http://www2.hawaii.edu/~bergen/, then at the University of California, and it is based on recorded interviews with eight native Esperanto speakers at the International Children's Congress in France in 1988.

In the paper, he compares the grammatical structures used by these children with that of 'normal' Esperanto. However, the small size of the sample, and the lack of comparison with the parents' use of Esperanto, mean that the conclusions must be tentative. Reported errors in the accusative don't seem to tie in with parents' impressions, for instance. 'Normal' Esperanto was taken as that described in the Plena Analiza Gramatiko, rather than the everyday language of their parents and friends.

But the paper will lead to more linguists being aware of the use of Esperanto as a family language, and perhaps even to more research projects on the topic. A draft of the paper can be found on the author's website (and the original should be available from the British Library via your local library).

3. LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRIZE - IT'S TIME TO PREPARE!

The November/December issue of Precinct, the newsletter of The University of Liverpool, had a prominent article on its back cover under the title 'Buchanan Prize for Esperanto'. A brief announcement of the 2001 prize also appeared on the web edition (http://www.liv.ac.uk/precinct/dec2001/). The essays and translations submitted were among the best the examiner had ever seen, and this year two prizes were awarded, going to David Thornell and Malcolm Jones. David's essay appeared in the British Esperantist, distributed to EAB members last month.

The prize, worth £150, is open to any past or present student of a University in any country in the Commonwealth. Entries for this year's prize should be in by May 1. Details and application forms are available from Richard Wilde, Sub-Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3BX.

The position of John Buchanan Lecturer in Esperanto at the university is still vacant, following the retirement of Don Lord. The lecturer, although part time, is a fully recognised member of the University staff, and the position is an influential one with regard to the language. Anyone interested may obtain details from jobsliv.ac.uk.

4. YOUNG BRITS - THE EU PARLIAMENT WANTS YOU!

Each year around 600 young people from all the EU countries take part in 'Euroscola', an event at the EU Parliament, in which they can experience a session of the European Parliament. Last May saw the first Euroscola in Esperanto http://e.euroscola.free.fr/2001.htm.

Now two Esperanto Euroscolas are being planned for this year - on 19th March and 17th April. No-one from the UK has yet joined in though. The travel costs are paid for by the Parliament. It's aimed at the age range 15-18. http://e.euroscola.free.fr/

5. LABOURSTART - AND ERIC'S ESPERANTO WEBLOG

Labourstart, the daily web journal of Labour and Society International, now has a version in Esperanto. The original English version was launched in March 1998, but early in 2001 they anounced their intention of making the site multilingual. It's a co-operative effort: they don't pick the languages - the readers do, by volunteering to translate on a regular basis.

In the Esperanto version, some of the articles appear in full translation, but those which are not translated have links to the new translation system Elitrad (http://www.traduku.net).

Labourstart was founded by Eric Lee, who has also just set up an "Esperanto Weblog" at http://radio.weblogs.com/0100712/, containing "Random thoughts and observations about the international language". It's a fascinating site, including so far a survey of how many Esperanto books are available from different on-line retailers, and some snide remarks on Esperanto in the new Web User magazine (but they liked the sound of Lesson Two of 'Esperanto Viva!': 'Educational value of Esperanto, and buying drinks' -;) )

6. FUN(D)RAISING CONCERT IN BERKSHIRE

The sixteenth century, Gothic style St Nicholas Church (http://www.britannia.com/history/berks/churches/newbury.html), which stands proudly at the heart of Newbury in West Berkshire, and was the venue for the Christmas Day service on BBC television - has been hired by 18-year-old Petra Fantom for a fundraising concert.

The concert is in aid of her Gap year expedition to South America, starting in April. The main activity isn't Esperanto-related - it's ecological work in Ecuador with Gap Challenge (http://www.gapchallenge.co.uk) - but after that, Petra hopes to help out for a couple of weeks at Bona Espero in Brazil - a children's home and school where Esperanto and visitors from the World are a part of daily life. Also in Petra's itinerary are visits to the World Esperanto Congress in Fortaleza, the Youth Esperanto Congress in Pato-Branko, as well as visiting friends in various places.

The concert is sponsored by local music shops Hogan Music and Philip Brown Violins, and will include cello and piano performances of - well, the program should be appearing any time now on Petra's website at http://www.mintex.demon.co.uk/petra/. The big event will take place on February 23 at 7:45pm.

7. SCIENCE FICTION INTERVIEW REQUEST

Herman Deceuninck in Belgium is trying to find someone who could interview the science fiction writer Harry Harrison for a projected article in the review 'Esperanto'. I see that on Harry Harrison's website, there is a short story written originally in Esperanto (http://www.harryharrison.com/). I also noticed that The Stainless Steel Rat movie was announced in 2000. If anyone can help, please contact Herman Deceuninck herman.deceuninckcoo.vlaanderen.be.

8. 'THANK YOU, KATE' - FROM UEA!

Kate Hall, in Oxford, has received a letter of congratulations from the president of the Universal Esperanto Association, Renato Corsetti, following the 25th issue of 'Afrika Reto' [African Network] which she initiated in 1992, and has edited ever since. 'Afrika Reto' encourages African Esperantists who wish to develop their prose and poetry in the language.

Dr Corsetti wrote that there are several categories of membership of UEA, but "the most valuable category is the Working Members". Kate had decided to help the African movement a number of years ago, and many Africans have benefitted from her efforts. Kate previously taught French and French Literature at the university.

9. OOPS!

It seems some readers were unable to read the invisible ink in yesterday's mailing of NetNews 7. I'd been training my pet robot, Roberto (ROBoto por Esperanto-Rilataj Taskoj) on compiling the reports into a formatted bulletin, sending the bulletin out, archiving it, and updating the web site - and in exchange, I'm teaching him Esperanto.

The reports aren't written by Roberto - they're written by a ghost writer (ia fantoma verkanto), and Roberto reformats them, puts them into a sensible order, and creates the contents list.

Before leaving it all to him, I thought, "Shall I tell him not to send an issue out if he can't find the reports?", but it was late, and so I left it till later (;-o). It seems that Roberto simply forgot to compile the thing first - I knew he could do that, and had just been testing him on all the other stuff. I should have reminded him to compile the thing first, though, before putting it all in his hands.

Anyway, he did one thing right: he sent a copy to the president of UEA, who promptly asked me to put him on the list, and to write a piece about EAB NetNews, for distribution amongst the national associations to stimulate ideas.

Thank you, Roberto ;-)

10. FORTHCOMING EVENTS

The South Midlands Esperanto Federation has just announced a rather special meeting in a "prestigious private school" in Oxford on 13th April, where Marjorie Boulton has already talked to the sixth-formers on three occasions about Esperanto. It is hoped that the meeting there will encourage an interest in Esperanto at the school. Information from Joyce Bunting Buntingfreightway.fsnet.co.uk.

Felixstowe Weekend Courses are planned for 15-17 February 2002 (Roy Simmons rokebyglobalnet.co.uk ) and 2 March is Esperanto Day at Wedgwood Memorial College (eabEsperanto.demon.co.uk) Following the British Congress in Stoke (3-5 May) will be the SATEB Weekend at the Wedgwood Memorial College, the Scottish Esperanto Congress (24-27 May) in St Andrews, Fife (davidbisset100.freeserve.co.uk) and then the Esperanto Summer School at the Wedgwood Memorial College (10-16 August).

A report on 'Ni Festivalu', which took place in January, has been posted on the EAB website http://www.esperanto.demon.co.uk.

11. ALTERNATIVE DOMAIN NAME FOR EAB

Esperanto Association of Britain now has an alternative Internet domain name: esperanto-gb.org. The website may be found at https://esperanto.org.uk, and the EAB office may be reached by email with eabesperanto-gb.org. This gives a more professional look than the existing esperanto.demon.co.uk. The drawback is that the Demon name appears in the address line of browsers, because the new address is only redirected.

The more obvious domain names of esperanto.co.uk and esperanto.org.uk were not available. The first one had already been grabbed by Webhound, which had been in the news for reportedly purchasing the rights for 15 000 village names as .co.uk domain names, then offering them for sale at a minimum of £500 each. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/scotland/newsid_619000/619312. stm) On their current website they say that because of the publicity they are no longer selling the domains, but they are planning free websites, paid for by advertising. I emailed them to ask what their intentions were in relation to esperanto.co.uk, but I got no reply.

The esperanto.org.uk domain name had been registered in 1999 by a political party, but they hadn't used it. When EAB approached them for the domain, they wanted £50 000 for it.

12. MORE EAB STUFF

The announced date for receiving nominations for the Management Committee has just passed, and, as far as I understand, only four candidates have been put forward, which is less than is required by the constitution.

I enquired what the position would be as regarding late nominations. It seems that the only constitutional requirement is that notice of the candidates be given to the members at least 21 days before the AGM. However, in practice, time is required to prepare the mailing, and the intention is for it to be send out with EAB Update. Not being a constitutional expert, I've simply posted the EAB constitution in the NetNews archive area.

So if you do know someone who is dynamic, wants to get things done, is too busy to be on committees, and you think you can twist their arm, you may just be in with a chance!

Plans for the forthcoming British Esperanto Congress in Stoke-on-Trent are now progressing, though the relocation of the new congress organiser, Terry Page, and related problems, have somewhat delayed things. I know so far that Paul Gubbins will take a discussion on the Brita Esperantisto, and there'll be a session on teaching Esperanto using the video 'Pasporto al la Tuta Mondo', that I'm doing something or other on web information, and that an extra day is planned on May 6 for a leisurely walk in the surrounding countryside.

I hear that the building work at Barlaston is 100% on schedule - they had a "very useful meeting with the architect" on Tuesday. The walls are now at head height. I've posted another couple of photos in the NetNews archive (http://esperanto.org/uk/eabnetnews/).

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