{"id":39402,"date":"2019-09-02T07:23:25","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T11:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=39402"},"modified":"2019-09-02T07:23:25","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T11:23:25","slug":"when-switzerland-broadcast-esperanto-around-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/when-switzerland-broadcast-esperanto-around-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"“When Switzerland broadcast Esperanto around Europe”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many thanks to SWLing Post<\/em> contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares this article from swissinfo.ch<\/a> regarding the history of the Esperanto language service of SWI. The following is an excerpt:<\/p>\n

\n

Esperanto<\/h2>\n

Esperanto (literally \u201cone who hopes\u201d) was the brainchild of Polish Jewish ophthalmologist Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, who published his first brochure in the language in 1887. He wanted it to become a second language for everyone.<\/p>\n

The Swiss Esperanto Society was founded in 1903.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Universala Esperanto-Asocioexternal\u00a0(Universal Esperanto Association) was founded in Geneva in 1908. It is now based in Rotterdam.<\/p>\n

The association says: \u201cBased on the number of textbooks sold and membership of local societies, the number of people with some knowledge of Esperanto is in the hundreds of thousands and possibly millions\u201d. Around 1,000 people speak it as their first language.<\/p>\n

Esperanto has a relatively simple grammar with no exceptions to its rules. Its vocabulary is derived primarily from Romance languages and to a lesser extent from Germanic and Slavic languages.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond Europe, no regular Esperanto broadcasts take place,\u201d the memo noted. The one exception was a special broadcast for Esperantists in Brazil on January 31, 1953.<\/p>\n

Baur \u2013 who worked on the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation\u2019s Esperanto programmes until 1991 \u2013 had reckoned there was a great interest in Esperanto in Brazil. The memo noted that the response to the one-off, five-minute broadcast was \u201cthoroughly gratifying\u201d, resulting in 25 letters (17 from Brazil, eight from other countries with reception).<\/p>\n

\u201cBut from the beginning we stressed that even if people really liked it, it wouldn\u2019t result in the introduction of Esperanto broadcasts in South America since, given the nation-joining aims of Esperanto, it would be contradictory to add a third language to a continent of only two languages which are more or less mutually comprehensible,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Aims of the broadcasts<\/h2>\n

The Bern memo explained that the main aim of the Esperanto broadcasts had always been \u201cto reach the intelligentsia behind the Iron Curtain, who successfully bridged their linguistic diversity \u2013 especially in southeast Europe \u2013 through Esperanto\u201d.<\/p>\n

It added: \u201cOur Esperanto broadcasts can therefore spread information about Switzerland and its ideas and ideals in an unobtrusive manner in those otherwise closed regions \u2013 as long as broadcasts in those regions\u2019 national languages don\u2019t make sense for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to say how many people listened to these broadcasts, none of which sadly have been saved in the SBC archives. According to the 1953 memo, Bern received two or three confirmations of reception a week, mostly from those countries behind the Iron Curtain. \u201cTheir relative rarity can be explained by the great risk most probably faced by the letter-writers,\u201d the memo said.<\/p>\n

Then, at the end of\u00a0January 1965, the shock news was announced that the 16 Esperanto programmes a month would no longer be broadcast for financial reasons.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Swiss Esperanto Societyexternal said this was a \u201cheavy loss for the Western world\u201d. \u201cA reduction from four weekly programmes to two or even one would certainly have met general understanding, but it is highly regrettable that the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation has decided to pull the Esperanto programmes completely,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Not dead yet<\/h2>\n

That happened next is not clear from the archives. We do know, however, that \u2013 if the programmes did indeed stop \u2013 at some point they started up again in some form and frequency because in the late 1980s Swiss Radio International (SRI), as the Short-wave Service was renamed in 1978, was sending transcription tapes with Esperanto material around the world.[…]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click here to read the full article.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares this article from swissinfo.ch regarding the history of the Esperanto language service of SWI. The following is an excerpt: Esperanto Esperanto (literally \u201cone who hopes\u201d) was the brainchild of Polish Jewish ophthalmologist Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, who published his first brochure in the language in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,305,288,43],"tags":[4895,7982,3897],"class_list":["post-39402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-nostalgia","category-radio-history","category-shortwave-radio","tag-david-iurescia-lw4daf","tag-esperanto","tag-swiss-radio-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-afw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35763,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/updates-from-radio-bulgaria\/","url_meta":{"origin":39402,"position":0},"title":"Updates from Radio Bulgaria","author":"Thomas","date":"January 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares the following: I'm sending you two interesting articles from the renewed website of Radio Bulgaria: The Bulgarian National Radio has changed its home four times (01\/25\/19): Many attempts have been made to tell the story of the Bulgarian National\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/RadioBulgaria.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/RadioBulgaria.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/RadioBulgaria.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/RadioBulgaria.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62586,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/radio-havana-cubas-a-25-schedule\/","url_meta":{"origin":39402,"position":1},"title":"Radio Havana Cuba’s A-25 Schedule","author":"Thomas","date":"April 15, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Paul Walker, who writes: This is the A25 Schedule for Radio Havana Cuba. Only English, Spanish, and Portuguese remain on shortwave (SW) broadcasts. You\u2019ll notice that only two frequencies, 6000 kHz and 15230 kHz, are still in use. Unfortunately, the antenna systems and transmitters\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/RHC-Schedule.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/RHC-Schedule.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/RHC-Schedule.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/RHC-Schedule.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/RHC-Schedule.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47074,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/swissinfo-shares-a-holiday-recording-from-their-archives\/","url_meta":{"origin":39402,"position":2},"title":"SwissInfo shares a holiday recording from their archives","author":"Thomas","date":"December 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares the following note from SwissInfo.ch: Since you're no doubt wondering what Christmas sounds like in Switzerland's four national languages, we've dusted off an old radio interview, produced in 1975 by the Swiss Short-wave Service, later Swiss Radio International and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/switzerland-e1609337972639.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/switzerland-e1609337972639.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/switzerland-e1609337972639.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/switzerland-e1609337972639.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":26426,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/radio-bulgaria-petition\/","url_meta":{"origin":39402,"position":3},"title":"Radio Bulgaria petition","author":"Thomas","date":"June 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David\u00a0Iurescia (LW4DAF), who writes: Hi Thomas: I'm sending you what I received today from Radio Bulgaria. The petition can be read in Spanish, English or Bulgarian. Dear Friends: We need your support for a noble and responsible cause. Radio Bulgaria, which belongs to National\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Bnr-radio-bulgaria.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Bnr-radio-bulgaria.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Bnr-radio-bulgaria.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":64198,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/rti-spanish-language-service-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":39402,"position":4},"title":"RTI Spanish Language Service Update","author":"Thomas","date":"October 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor David Iurescia, who shares the following schedule update from Radio Taiwan International's Spanish language service:","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FB_IMG_1759938022770.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FB_IMG_1759938022770.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FB_IMG_1759938022770.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FB_IMG_1759938022770.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FB_IMG_1759938022770.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47887,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/radio-bulgaria-celebrates-85th-anniversary\/","url_meta":{"origin":39402,"position":5},"title":"Radio Bulgaria celebrates 85th anniversary","author":"Thomas","date":"February 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares the following feature from Radio Bulgaria who celebrates their 85th anniversary: Speaking your language for 85 years 2021 marks the 85th anniversary of the Bulgarian National Radio\u2019s foreign language service to the world. 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