Ido-speakers won´t like this one

“Tincjo en Tibeto” is the Esperanto translation of “Tintin in Tibet”, one of the most beloved Tintin adventures. Esperanto is a would-be international auxiliary language constructed by Polish Jew Ludwig Zamenhof in 1887. Little is heard about the movement of Esperantists (as Esperanto-speakers are called) today, but during the 20th century this peculiar language was quite popular. My maternal grandfather was an Esperantist, as so was the husband of one of my aunts. Personally, I never took the step, but I did some reading on the language. In the West, Esperanto had a slightly counter-cultural reputation, being promoted by pretty much the same people who were into pacifism, vegetarianism and idealistic socialism. In the Soviet bloc, Esperanto had official support (except during Stalin's most “Great Russian” period) and was used to disseminate Communist peace propaganda. The peace angle still exists. Apparently, none other than the Dalai Lama has promoted the Esperanto translation of “Tintin in Tibet”.

While Esperanto became the most successful constructed language, it did have competitors. One was Volapük, another was Ido. While Volapük is effectively extinct, a small group of Ido-speakers still exist. And yes, there's a reason why I mention this seemingly irrelevant fact. More on that shortly.

I've never been particularly impressed by Esperanto. Its perfectly regular grammar and unusual word formation makes the language sound obviously artificial, despite the mostly Romance-derived vocabulary. This makes “Tincjo en Tibeto” entertaining, but largely for the wrong reasons. Even the screams of the Yeti have Esperanto spelling! Here's a sample of this supposedly international language: “Gi tre granda, Sahib, tre forta. Gi frapmortigas gruntbovojn per pugno. Gi tre malbona! Mangas okulojn kaj manojn de homoj de gi mortigitaj”. You grok, or should I say grokojn? At least the Yeti a.k.a. Abominable Snowman has a more internationally savvy designation: “Jetio, la abomeninda nego-homo”.

Naturally, I wanted to know how Captain Haddock's colorful insults about blistering barnacles have been rendered in Esperanto. His favorite expletive seems to be “Mil milionoj da mil lukoj”, which I think means “billions by thousands of portholes”. Well, he is a retired captain, after all…

The most original of Haddock's curses, however, almost made me fell from my chair laughing. They are – wait for it – “volapukista” (Volapük-speaker) and “idista” (Ido-speaker)! As already noted, Volapük and Ido were two competitors to Esperanto in the hard-to-understand constructed language department. Bertrand Russell (who once, tongue in cheek, called Ido-speakers “idiots”) would have loved every minute of this...

“Tincjo en Tibeto” contains another Esperanto in-house joke, as well. In the original Franco-Belgian version, Haddock says at one point that he dreamt about Napoleon the other night, but in the Esperanto version, his dream was about Zamenhof instead, the man who constructed Esperanto!

Volapükists and Idists, beware of the Abominable Nego-Homo, you!

Five stars.