Homaranismo: Zamenhof's creed, kept apart

homo, homaro, homarano: the word

The name is four pieces on the root hom-, person. Each suffix adds one idea:

• La tuta homaro estas unu familio. - All humanity is one family.
• Mi estas homarano. - I am a member of humanity.

-ar- makes a collection, as in arbaro (a forest). -an- makes a member, as in samideano (a fellow Esperantist). The first name, hilelismo, was built the same way: Hillel, the rabbi, plus -ism-.

1906: the dogmas, unsigned

In 1906 a brochure appeared in St Petersburg, in Russian and in Esperanto, with no author's name: Homaranismo. It explains the change of name in one line: hilelismo concerned one human group, homaranismo concerns all peoples and religions.

A footnote draws the line with Esperanto in so many words:

Oni ne devas intermiksi la homaranismon kun la esperantismo! Ambaŭ ideoj estas tre parencaj inter si, sed tute ne identaj.

One must not mix up homaranismo with esperantismo! The two ideas are closely related, but not at all identical.

It adds that one can be bonega esperantisto and still oppose homaranismo. Privat's biography says that was why Zamenhof left the brochure unsigned: to avoid confusion.

The ninth dogma

The ninth dogma is about language. Speak what you like at home, it says, but meet people of other languages on neutral ground. A note then makes Esperanto replaceable:

Ĉar en la nuna tempo ekzistas nur unu neŭtrala lingvo, nome Esperanto, tial la homaranoj akceptas ĝuste ĝin; tamen ili rezervas al si la rajton anstataŭigi iam poste tiun ĉi lingvon per ia alia lingvo, se tio ĉi montriĝos utila.

Since at present there is only one neutral language, namely Esperanto, the homaranoj accept precisely it; however, they reserve the right to replace this language later with some other language, should that prove useful.

The separation ran both ways. Esperanto did not need homaranismo, and homaranismo did not need Esperanto.

The fifth dogma asks for neutral place names, built from the capital plus -io: Peterburgio, Parizio.

1913: the signed declaration

The last version, Deklaracio pri Homaranismo, appeared in Madrid in 1913, under Zamenhof's own name; his preface is dated Warsaw, May 1913. It opens with a preface aimed at Esperantists. People will think homaranismo is Esperanto, or the interna ideo, he writes: tio tamen estus eraro, that would be a mistake. It is mian kredon pure privatan, my purely private belief, and does not concern other Esperantists.

Its principles are in the first person. The first two:

Note the word order in the second line: the object la tutan homaron comes first, for weight, and its -n keeps the meaning clear (word order).

The preface also points back to Kraków: he had given up every official role in Esperanto there, in 1912, to free Esperantists from any suspected solidarity with his private convictions. The interna ideo page has that speech.