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I do not personally speak any of the Scandinavian languages, but I have always found it interesting how Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are meant to be mutually intelligible. They are listed as separate official languages, though – so surely there must be a fairly substantial difference between them, right? It’s sometimes claimed that Italians, Spanish and Portuguese can understand each other to some extent when they speak slowly, but not to the point of having a fluent conversation.

Could the difference read more

In follow up to last week’s blog on Esperanto, I would like to thank the readers for their replies and links on Esperanto culture. I must say they have been truly enlightening, and I am tempted to come along to an Esperanto event out of curiosity.

It’s clear that Esperanto has a tight-knit community and that by sharing a common language it allows a mix of nationalities to come together, communicate and share their own cultures. I am, however, wondering read more

After Mary-Anne’s post on universalising language last month, I went and did some research on invented languages and realised that I’ve never actually heard the elusive Esperanto, so I asked myself the following questions: Why, how and where have people learnt to speak this supposedly universal language? Where do Esperanto speakers hide out? And finally, what does Esperanto sound or look like?

Esperanto was developed in the late 1800’s by Dr Ludwig Zamenhof with the aim of uniting the world through read more

The streets of Caracas will be packed for the next week to mark a period of official mourning for the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who died last week. As leaders from around the world arrived to attend his state funeral last weekend, further preparations were being made for his body to be embalmed and put on display for the people to pay their last respects to this self-proclaimed ‘revolutionary’ leader.

2 million people are said to have already marched past read more