July 26th

Today is Esperanto day. Esperanto is the world's most widely spoken constructed language, with about 2 million people estimated to speak it around the world. For the unaware, a constructed language, or conlang, is exactly what it sounds like it is. It's a language that's constructed, opposed to the slow process of natural language development. For reference, the second most popular conlang is considered to be Klingon from Star Trek. 

Unlike Klingon and other languages constructed to hold a function in a work of fiction, Esperanto was drafted as a language anyone could learn or speak. That being said, Esperanto is a long way away from being the universal second language it was designed as. The biggest complaints seem to be the language being too European and androcentric, with a sharp majority of the vocabulary being from European roots and an "assume male unless modified to be female" lexicon with gendered terms. The reason for this is probably the fact that a Polish guy in the 1800's invented the language. 

[EDITOR’S NOTE: I know it’s not intentional, but it sounds like you’re throwing shade against 19th century Polish men in that last sentence. Like, UGH, typical of those Warsaw guys, am I right my rapscallions?]