Esperanto · Chapter 28 · Lesson 14 · Grammar primer
Esperantismo kaj la interna ideo
What the Declaration of Boulogne actually defines, the internal idea Zamenhof named in Geneva and laid down in Krakow, homaranismo and its ninth dogma, and what any of it means to a hobbyist today.
The short version
What esperantismo officially is
The 1905 Declaration of Boulogne defines esperantismo as the effort to spread a neutrally human language - and then adds that everything beyond that is a private matter for each Esperantist. The movement wrote its own limits into its founding document: use the language for anything, but the movement itself asks only that you use it.
Esperantismo estas penado disvastigi en la tuta mondo la uzadon de lingvo neuxtrale homa.
The internal idea, named in Geneva
In 1906 Zamenhof gave the thing a name: la interna ideo - the sense that a shared neutral language carries a hope of fraternity beyond the grammar. Six years later in Krakow he laid down leadership so the idea would not depend on him. You can use Esperanto without the idea; the movement has argued for a century about whether the idea can survive without being used.
la interna ideo de Esperanto
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