Moroka was scowling back and forth from one of them to the other. "I thought I had a fairly good working knowledge of the world's more common languages," he said, "but that goes by me. It sounds like a cross between Italian and pig-Latin."
Homer said to the Peters brothers, "Let's drop Esperanto so that Dave, Isobel and Cliff can follow us. We can give it a whirl later, if you'd like, just for the practice."
Isobel said slowly, "Mi parolas Esperanto, malgranda." Then in English, "I took it for kicks while I was still in school. Kind of rusty now, though."
"Esperanto?" Cliff said. "You mean that gobblydygook so-called international language?"
Jack Peters looked at him, serious faced as always. "What is wrong with an international language, Mr. Jackson?"
Cliff was taken aback. "Search me. But it doesn't seem to have proved very practical. It didn't catch on."
"Well, more than you might think," Isobel told him. "There are probably hundreds of thousands of persons in one part of the world or another who can get along in Esperanto."
Moroka said impatiently, "What're a few hundred thousands of people in a world population like ours? Cliff's right. It never took hold."
Homer said, "All right, Jack and Jimmy. You boys evidently have something on your minds. Let everybody sit down and listen to it."