The ever hopeful speakers of Esperanto have tried for more than 70 years to get the UN to adopt the international language. But perhaps they would be more successful if they pursued noninstitutional routes instead.
Say, by getting candidates to speak it while they campaign?
My favorite quotation this week from the presidential trail comes from Joe Liberman: "Viva Chutzpah!"
Okay, it's not Esperanto and the phrase actually came from a Latina woman who attended a Gore rally. But perhaps it's a sign of a future American language which would be a bit of Spanish, English and....Yiddish.
Yes, Yiddish. I have the weight of Eugene Volokh and Alex Kozinski to back me up on this. Volokh, a law professor at UCLA and Kozinski, have observed that Yiddish is replacing Latin as the language of American legal authority.
I knew there was a good reason why I went to school in New York.