Are there native speakers of Esperanto?
Some speakers of Esperanto have become so enthusiastic about the language that they have chosen to use it at home, even when they share a common native language, and so their children learn the language as their native tongue. An even more important factor is the number of international marriages that have developed between people who have met each other through Esperanto and whose only common language is Esperanto. The result is that today at least several hundred and perhaps as many as a few thousand individuals throughout the world speak Esperanto as a native language. There are annual conferences, at least one international magazine, and one on-line mailing list devoted to such individuals. There are, so far as I can tell, no monolingual speakers of Esperanto beyond the age of three or four years — in other words, beyond the age when socialization outside the family begins to become important. Furthermore, because their numbers are so small and because they are generally less dedic
