ESPERANTO AS LINGUA FRANCA FOR THE STATELESS ETHNIC GROUPS IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY TILL 1939

The article deals with cases involving the planned language Esperanto in attempts to resolve language conflicts and in measures to protect the languages of stateless ethnic groups in Europe during their nation-building processes in the first half of the 20th century, more precisely, until 1939. Chronological boundaries cover two periods of the Esperanto movement, according to Federico Gobbo: partly the Esperanto pioneers’ period and the interwar period. These periods almost coincide with the two waves of the Breton language and literature movement, within which there are known episodes of the Esperanto use by Breton intellectuals with the purpose to present translated texts of Breton literature, the results of scientific research to the international readers and to articulate political ideas revolving the state building aspirations. A similar phenomenon can be observed among other ethnic groups, for example, Ukrainians and Catalans, which is also briefly discussed in the article. Language conflicts and the involvement of Esperanto in their resolution are proposed to be considered from the view of Pierre Bourdieu's interpretation of language – language as a state instrument of domination and symbolic power. In this way, Esperanto, which was associated with neither a state nor a (dominant) ethnic group and did not carry the symbolic meaning of dominance and prestige, but, on the contrary, had to be perceived neutrally, was considered as a communication medium of stateless ethnic groups, whose languages were under threat due to the harsh language policy of modernizing/centralizing nation states and empires. In addition, learning Esperanto could have become economically viable, thanks to its simplicity and speed of learning the planned language. The Esperanto movement opened up another side: intellectual and political representatives of stateless ethnic groups used the Esperanto space as a platform to express their political aspirations and draw attention to their national languages and cultures.