Browser producers for years had not provided for the six special Esperanto letters, but around 2000 with Unicode© the problem seemed to be either solved or close to it. The technology to type the special letters off the keyboard existed since at least 1998, and is being marketed by LingoMAIL in an e-mail system. Once LingoMail is set up, it is fairly easy to use. However, there are thousands of Esperanto Webpages that were devised before the Unicode solution became generally accessible. Casual Websurfers who come across an Esperanto webpage might see any of several systems of providing for the six special letters. The Esperantist who reads Esperanto Webpages and E-mails is sometimes amuzed by the various systems, sometimes mixed in the one document! First, please look at the Esperanto alphabet:

The inventiveness of Esperantists has been strained in trying to provide for the special letters: Ĉ, ĉ, Ĝ, ĝ, Ĥ, ĥ, Ĵ, ĵ, Ŝ, ŝ, Ŭ, and ŭ or C^, c^, G^, g^, H^, h^, J^, j^, S^, s^, U~ and u~ on Webpages and in E-mails. Some people use the circumflex (^) and tilde (~) or apostrophe (') after, or before, the letters, but most add an "X" or an "H" after the relevant ordinary letter. All these systems off the keyboard used little disk space, AND they did not require up-to-date browsers, nor special typefaces nor settings.

A number of Esperantists download routinely-available programmes -- Latin-3 and Unicode -- and sets of special typefaces, which allow them to view Esperanto on Webpages, as it ought to be displayed showing the special letters. Here is a display, USING SENTENCES SPECIALLY WRITTEN TO SHOW A LOT OF ACCENTED LETTERS, of what I can show so far. About July 2000 I learnt from a Webpage of John Wells how to use UNICODE to show correct Esperanto, but for a time I could not understand how to make Unicode show in a Table on Netscape.

I was glad to write this at the time! "Note that in the nameplate Table elsewhere on this page, the special letter u^, i.e., ŭ, is showing on Netscape! - jcm 20Jul00."

  Ĵaŭdon matene ŝia fianĉo, forgesema de sia                  Unicode display.
ĉirkaŭaĵoj, ĵetis ruĝan ŝuon al muŝo en la
antaŭaĵo de preĝejo, sed ĝi batis ĥor-knabon.
Ĥor-knaboj malŝatas batiĝi de ŝuoj! Li uzis
malbonan lingvon!

  NE mispresoj en Latino-3!  NOT misprints in Latin-3!   "¬," "¦," "¶," "¼," and the rest are appearing in words on webpages as part of the Latin-3 coding, because under that system people keen enough to download the programme and the special typefaces can read them as correct Esperanto letters, and presumably they consider this result outweighs the unintended consequences of casual internet surfers accidentally coming across an Esperanto page, and seeing it as gibberish! Surely this harms the image of Esperanto!!!

A short background

Standard Esperanto uses a Latin-type alphabet, just as most of Western and Central Europe does, and other continents. However, when Dr Louis Zamenhof invented Esperanto, he wished to tidy up the letters that he thought caused most problems, and he needed six sounds more than the number of letters left.  Remember, he was in a town where the mother-tongues included German (with several special letters, and at that time written in blackletter similar to "Old English" style), Polish (with a few special letters), Russian (with a different alphabet in Cyrillic script of 40 letters), and Yiddish and Hebrew (with a completely different alphabet, written from right to left!).  

To tidy up, rightly or wrongly Dr Zamenhof rejected four letters -- "q," "w," "x," and "y."  His additional sounds were represented by putting diacritical marks over six letters -- C, G, H, J, S, and U, to give the sounds of ch, j as the g in gem, kkh as the last sound of loch, zh as z in azure, sh, and w or a quick oo in diphthongs like AUX (ow as in cow).  (He left out the "th" sound as in "think" and the voiced "dh" sound as in "then," which are in Greek and English.)  Here is how his 28-letter alphabet looks in small letters:-

The inventor might have imagined or hoped that his six special new letters would be quickly stocked by most printers, just as has been done for the various alphabets around him and in Scandinavia and now even in tiny Malta.  He may not have foreseen the invention of the computer and the internet.  If he had, he would not have expected that, although many unusual letters, even from the Icelandic language with only a limited number of speakers, can be put on the internet by typing in a "code" -- for example "Þ" to make "Þ" and "Ø" to make "Ø" -- for years not one Esperanto letter could be easily put on the Internet. Requests to the controlling companies seemingly fell on deaf ears.

How did Esperantists provide for this? Were there 'workarounds'?

Yes, as you would expect, some "workarounds" were devised.  (By the way, the problem of putting Greek on the internet has led a news service to invent substitutes, using the ordinary United States computer keyboard and typefaces, for certain Greek letters, and they produce news quickly in a format they call "Greeklish."  With a little practice, a Greek reader can read these news bulletins, without having to buy special programmes and load down special sets of typefaces.)

The H solution: Back in the days of Dr Zamenhof, the problem of representing the six letters drew a solution from him.  If the printer did not have the Esperanto letters, he recommended inserting an H after the corresponding ordinary letter, to signify that it was a special letter for the special sounds, except for the last one, the letter U.  In quite a number of compound words the addition of the H can cause problems; for instance, an airport is "flughaveno," made up of "flug" and "haveno."  The sound after the "u" is NOT the GH, GX, G^ or Ĝ sound as g in "gem," but there are two separate sounds, a G as in go and an H as in hurry.  However, the problem can by solved by the use of a hyphen, thus "flug-haveno."  Some Websites use the traditional Zamenhof system, and a few use Amplified Zamenhofan, that is, an H is put after every one of the six special letters, including U.

The X convention: Early in the days of internet e-mails, chat sessions, bulletin boards, etc., some Esperantists avoided the problems of the H system by inserting an X to show the six special sounds.  It is a great system, and for many Esperantists it is easier to read than the H system.  Because there is no X in Esperanto,  when an Esperantist sees one in a word s/he knows at once that it is marking the letter before it as a special letter with its different sound.  However, the appearance of the x can be a bit "off-putting" to a non-Esperantist, especially if two or three appear in one word, like these: "cxirkauxajxo" and "cxefnovajxojn"!!! (However, words like this are fairly uncommon.) These words looks more readable as "chirkauhajho" (surroundings) and "chefnovajhojn" (main news).

Special programmes and sets of typefaces: Keen Esperantists have devised the use of special programmes, linked into special sets of typefaces.  The main systems are Latin 3, and Unicode, as mentioned above and below.  To use Unicode, it is recommended that Esperantists read: http://www.concinnity.se/bertilow/html/vindozo_unikodo.htm

Let's look more closely at the different methods of showing Esperanto

Below are some organised charts showing some of the methods of representing Esperanto on webpages.

H systems: The H systems are attractive because they look more natural for casual non-Esperantist Websurfers who happen to drop into Websites.  We ought to be trying to attract non-Esperantists.  Here is a key to the "Full H" system:

"Full H" or "Amplified Zamenhofan" style Sur retpagho ke uzas la "Plena H" auh "Plivastige Zamenhofa" stilo, rigardu "ch", "gh", "hh", "jh", "sh"  kaj "uh" (anstatauh c^, g^, h^, j^, s^, kaj u^ auh u~). On a webpage that uses the "Full H" or "Amplified Zamenhofan" style, see "ch", "gh", "hh", "jh", "sh"  and "uh" (instead of  c^, g^, h^, j^, s^, and u^ or u~), pronounced as follows:- "ch" (pron. "CH" as in "church"), "gh" (pron. "J" sound of the "g" in "gem"), "hh" (pron. "KKH" as the last sound in "loch"), "jh" (pron. "ZH" as the "z" in "azure"), "sh" (pron. "SH" as in "shop") and   "uh" (pron. "W" or a quick "OO").

X convention:  The X convention is excellent for regular readers of it.

Latin-3: Some Latin-3 is displayed on this website.  Below is an explanation and key:

I will be soon investigating the Official new-look Unicode website, at http://www.unicode.org/ - jcm 20Jul00